JW
Malignant Turks refuse to play Israeli national anthem for Israeli chess tournament winner, who stands defiant
Defiant and victorious
Marcel Efroimski, a 13-year-old Israeli chess prodigy, yesterday became the Girls’ Under-14 World Chess Champion when she won the Gold Medal for her age group at the World Youth Chess Championships held in Turkey. This in itself is not of any interest to Jihad Watch — except that during the awards ceremony, the malignant (if not turban’d) and increasingly Islamic supremacist Turkish authorities refused to play the Israeli National Anthem, as is required at such ceremonies. However, young Marcel would not play the dhimmi. She stood on the podium and raised her trophy with an expression of defiance — as you can see from the photo, in which she stands in front of an image of the malignant and unturban’d Ataturk.
Kudos, Marcel. With that, you became more than just a winner. You became a hero.
The following letter was sent to FIDE, President Kirsan Ilumzhinov and Vice President Israel Gelfer.
Dear Mr. President,
I write to you with great concern following what seems as a serious incident that occurred .Today during the closing ceremony of the world junior championships held in Turkey. Happily our girl junior player, Marcel Efroymsky, has won the world title and the gold medal. As customed in such events, the delegations prepared to stand and salute the national anthem of the winner’s country. Astonishingly and without any warning, the organizers decided to cancel the playing of the winners anthem. The Turkish organization has offered a ridiculous explanation that they do not have the time to spend on such event.
This excuse is absurd in light of the same venue hosting this event two years ago where all winner anthems were played! In there actions, the organizers demonstrated disrespect to the junior winners, their federation and their countries. As chairman of the Israeli Chess Federation, I herby urge you to investigate this incident. I must say that this kind of boycott (if such occurred) strikes as a another example of how politics interferes with chess. I call you as president of the FIDE, for which the tournament carried your flag, to investigate this issue and if the information appeared to be accurate, then to denounce this disrespectful conduct if the information.
My feeling is, that such events hurt chess in general and send the wrong message the children who dream to become chess champions taking pride in representing their countries.
Yours truly,
Aviv Bushinsky
Chairman of the Israeli Chess Federation
In response the president of the Turkish Chess Federation merely repeats the time excuse.
We need to raise our kids like that: proud, confident winners who stand tall for their nation and beliefs. Why bother with Turks who never even acknowledged their murderous history? What are the Turks doing host a chess championship? Don’t they know muhammad forbids playing chess?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I have already.
Keep Turkey out of the European Union, thank you.
it would have been better if she had sung Israel’s anthem.
vzcxvzxc, it is enough she stood defiant. She is just a child and what she did was brave enough.
I’m not in favour of military juntas as a rule.
In the case of Turkey I would make an exception.
That young woman has got my total admiration.
Spot on Reijo.