Salou Open 2022 turnīra organizētāju atbilde ukraiņu dambretistiem

16.maijs

Apeldoorn, 16 May 2022

Dear friends!

You probably know that the organizers of the Salou tournament have direct personal ties

with Ukraine and have a clear and unequivocal position in relation to the events taking place

now.

Next to all our sympathy, we also regret that many Ukrainian draughts players will not be

able to take part in our tournament this year. It is not about the human terms, but only in

terms of sports, but the war prevented also the participation in the tournament of many

Russian and Belarusian draughts players who share our and your attitude both to the war

and to the regimes established in their countries.

The specific individual participants of the Salou Open 2022 are Alexander Shvartsman, who

has lived in Ukraine for many years, and two grandmasters from Belarus with a clear

anti-war position known to us, so it’s even hard to say what else is required of them and

what they personally have wrong, other than to their “unlucky” citizenship.

(We will explore what can technically be done with the name “Individual Player”, it is not

entirely up to us).

But, in general, you touched on a very complex topic, which goes far beyond the small

draughts tournaments.

Your assumption that supporting this terrible war at the level of expression of individual

opinion (in the West) is somehow forbidden is, alas, wrong.

This is unpleasant for us, and even more so for you, but, for example, in the Netherlands

there are many people, including draughts players, who openly take a pro-Russian or

anti-Ukrainian position.

And, since this is their personal opinion, there is no legal way to impose any restrictions on

them. That is, such people have full (including sports) rights.

How fair then is the exclusion from competitions of some people who oppose the war

(sometimes at the risk of their careers, and even freedom) in the absence of any mechanism

for exclusion of direct apologists of the war from the same Netherlands?

But it also seems to us wrong in principle to demand open statements from people who can

seriously suffer for this. The situation in Russia and Belarus today is such that this can

achieve just the opposite effect – to provoke repressions precisely against those who

sympathize with Ukraine and intimidate people even more.

We think that in the (sports) world some mechanism will soon be developed that will allow

athletes from Russia and Belarus to express their opinion in such a way that will not fall

under repression in their countries. We will discuss this with the FMJD officials who will be in

the same Salou.

We wish you all to endure this terrible period, emerge victorious from it and not lose human

and humanitarian values, for which, among other things, you fight.

Glory to Ukraine!

Alexander Presman, Henk Hoekman