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Azeri-Hungarian futsal and how to act
dumb
http://hungarianspectrum.wordpress.com/
September 8, 2012
It was predictable that we would have to return to Azerbaijan. After all,
it is still the center of attention in Hungary as well as in Armenian
communities all over the world. It is enough to read some of the news items
about rather large demonstrations from Los Angeles to Moscow to realize
that this problem is not going to go away as quickly and quietly as Prime
Minister Viktor Orbán hoped.
Today I am going to write something light-hearted about this deadly serious
business. The first topic will be futsal. Yes, futsal. In case you have
never heard of futsal, it is a variant of soccer that is played on a
smaller pitch and mainly indoors. The
gameis played on a hard
surface with a smaller ball with less bounce than a
regular football.
Hungary is not exactly a giant in futsal. I couldn't find Hungary in the
top twenty-five national teams. As of now, Spain heads the list with
Brazil, Italy, and Russia following. The best team in Azerbaijan is
Araz Naxçivan, which apparently is pretty competitive on the international
scene. In 2010 the team reached the semi-finals in the Union of European
Football Association's Futsal Cup, and they repeated that performance at
the UEFA European Futsal Championship that was held in Hungary.
*Péter Szijjártó in action*
It was Zsófia Mihancsik's
articleon
*Galamus *entitled `Két kérdés Safarov-ügyben' (Two questions about the
Safarov affair) that piqued my interest. She noticed a small MTI item on
August 17 to the effect that Ottó Vincze, a well known soccer player, had
joined `the office of the prime minister's futsal team, the Dunakeszi
Kinizsi.' Dunakeszi Kinizsi last year received a silver medal in the second
string of the National Championship
competitions(NB II). MTI
added that `the players mostly come from the ranks of the
employees of the prime minister's office =85 including Péter Szijjártó,
undersecretary in charge of foreign affairs and foreign trade.'
A few hours later János Lázár, the new head of the prime minister's office,
announced
that
`there isn't, never was, and never will be any kind of football team of the
prime minister's office.' There had to be some kind of misunderstanding
here. It is true that many people working for the prime minister
participate in sports and that is a good thing, but the prime minister's
office doesn't give its name or taxpayer money to in-house sports
clubs
.
Meanwhile Dunakeszi Kinizsi was preparing for the big game with `one of the
best futsal teams.' It was a truly special occasion because the match also
celebrated the opening of the refurbished sports arena of Dunakeszi Kinizsi
in the Miklós Radnóti Gymnasium. Szijjártó's club made it clear to MTI that
this team from Azerbaijan is really tops. The spokesman for the club added
that the Dunakeszi Kinizsi lately has also become a serious opponent
because some strong players joined the team. The friendly meet, it was
announced, will take place on September 10. MTI reported the event under
the headline: 'The Dunakeszi sports arena will be opened with one of the
best futsal teams of Europe.'
Then came the release of Ramil Sarafov on August 31. On September 3 several
newspapers reported that the game was still on. But on September 5 we
learned from the manager of the futsal club of Dunakeszi Kinizsi that `the
club doesn't want to give anyone an opportunity to use a sports event as
a
provocation.' The match was cancelled. So Péter Szijjártó, the chief
negotiator of the Azeri deal, won't have an opportunity to show off his I'm
sure inimitable skill against Azerbaijan's best futsal club.
Another story that caught my imagination focused on the Hungarian Foreign
Ministry's Institute of Foreign Affairs (Magyar Külügyi Intézet). The
historians and political scientists working for this institute have two
main tasks: (1) to prepare background information for the use of the
diplomats working for the ministry and (2) to give advice to the government
in case of a diplomatic blunder.
Well, you can imagine what happened within twenty-four hours after the news
reached Hungary that Ramil Sarafov had received a hero's welcome upon his
arrival in Azerbaijan. The experts at the institute immediately sat down
and wrote their recommendations. After they summarized the events and the
suspicion abroad that the Hungarian government had exchanged a murderer for
2-3 billion euros, they came out with `sound' advice. Azerbaijan is more
important to Hungary than vice versa and therefore the Hungarian government
shouldn't claim that the Azeri president had conned the Hungarian prime
minister. Instead, one ought to play dumb.
*Act dumb / flickr*
If you think that I'm exaggerating, I'm not. The chapter that discusses
this strategy is entitled `Let's dare to be stupid!' (Merjünk buták lenni!)
The suggestion was to take all the blame. The author/authors of the
document suggested that Hungarian diplomats rely on sentences such as: `We
believed that the promise coming from the Azeri ministry was sufficient and
we didn't count on the presidential pardon.' The Hungarians were told that
they would even have to bear the odium of being considered incompetent:
`Azerbaijan is far =85 there is no true expertise of that region in Hungary=85.
We had no knowledge of the Azeri legal system.'
Further suggestions included the use of official silence in the first
couple of days as proof that the Hungarians were totally unprepared for
such a development. At the same time, they wrote, the Hungarians must
emphasize that as far as international law is concerned Budapest acted
legally. Such a strategy, according to the authors, gives Hungary a way out
in the international community while `it doesn't endanger the Hungarian
goals in Azerbaijan.' Through unofficial channels Hungarian diplomats could
tell their foreign colleagues that Baku didn't keep its promise. Such a
strategy will work with the Armenians and the Americans. (I guess, because
they are naive babes-in-arms.)
The document coming from the Hungarian Institute of Foreign Affairs
naturally `wasn't for the public,' but by September 6 it was in the hands
of the editors of *Népszabadság.* It was leaked, just as the July letter of
the IMF/EU delegation and the letter of the European Commission sent to
Budapest on August 31 had been. These leaks indicate to me that some of the
people working for the Hungarian government came to the conclusion that
they cannot support Viktor Orbán's hazardous games and therefore they are
willing to assist the Hungarian opposition by making secret documents that
in one way or another reflect badly on the government public.
From: A. Papazian
dumb
http://hungarianspectrum.wordpress.com/
September 8, 2012
It was predictable that we would have to return to Azerbaijan. After all,
it is still the center of attention in Hungary as well as in Armenian
communities all over the world. It is enough to read some of the news items
about rather large demonstrations from Los Angeles to Moscow to realize
that this problem is not going to go away as quickly and quietly as Prime
Minister Viktor Orbán hoped.
Today I am going to write something light-hearted about this deadly serious
business. The first topic will be futsal. Yes, futsal. In case you have
never heard of futsal, it is a variant of soccer that is played on a
smaller pitch and mainly indoors. The
gameis played on a hard
surface with a smaller ball with less bounce than a
regular football.
Hungary is not exactly a giant in futsal. I couldn't find Hungary in the
top twenty-five national teams. As of now, Spain heads the list with
Brazil, Italy, and Russia following. The best team in Azerbaijan is
Araz Naxçivan, which apparently is pretty competitive on the international
scene. In 2010 the team reached the semi-finals in the Union of European
Football Association's Futsal Cup, and they repeated that performance at
the UEFA European Futsal Championship that was held in Hungary.
*Péter Szijjártó in action*
It was Zsófia Mihancsik's
articleon
*Galamus *entitled `Két kérdés Safarov-ügyben' (Two questions about the
Safarov affair) that piqued my interest. She noticed a small MTI item on
August 17 to the effect that Ottó Vincze, a well known soccer player, had
joined `the office of the prime minister's futsal team, the Dunakeszi
Kinizsi.' Dunakeszi Kinizsi last year received a silver medal in the second
string of the National Championship
competitions(NB II). MTI
added that `the players mostly come from the ranks of the
employees of the prime minister's office =85 including Péter Szijjártó,
undersecretary in charge of foreign affairs and foreign trade.'
A few hours later János Lázár, the new head of the prime minister's office,
announced
that
`there isn't, never was, and never will be any kind of football team of the
prime minister's office.' There had to be some kind of misunderstanding
here. It is true that many people working for the prime minister
participate in sports and that is a good thing, but the prime minister's
office doesn't give its name or taxpayer money to in-house sports
clubs
.
Meanwhile Dunakeszi Kinizsi was preparing for the big game with `one of the
best futsal teams.' It was a truly special occasion because the match also
celebrated the opening of the refurbished sports arena of Dunakeszi Kinizsi
in the Miklós Radnóti Gymnasium. Szijjártó's club made it clear to MTI that
this team from Azerbaijan is really tops. The spokesman for the club added
that the Dunakeszi Kinizsi lately has also become a serious opponent
because some strong players joined the team. The friendly meet, it was
announced, will take place on September 10. MTI reported the event under
the headline: 'The Dunakeszi sports arena will be opened with one of the
best futsal teams of Europe.'
Then came the release of Ramil Sarafov on August 31. On September 3 several
newspapers reported that the game was still on. But on September 5 we
learned from the manager of the futsal club of Dunakeszi Kinizsi that `the
club doesn't want to give anyone an opportunity to use a sports event as
a
provocation.' The match was cancelled. So Péter Szijjártó, the chief
negotiator of the Azeri deal, won't have an opportunity to show off his I'm
sure inimitable skill against Azerbaijan's best futsal club.
Another story that caught my imagination focused on the Hungarian Foreign
Ministry's Institute of Foreign Affairs (Magyar Külügyi Intézet). The
historians and political scientists working for this institute have two
main tasks: (1) to prepare background information for the use of the
diplomats working for the ministry and (2) to give advice to the government
in case of a diplomatic blunder.
Well, you can imagine what happened within twenty-four hours after the news
reached Hungary that Ramil Sarafov had received a hero's welcome upon his
arrival in Azerbaijan. The experts at the institute immediately sat down
and wrote their recommendations. After they summarized the events and the
suspicion abroad that the Hungarian government had exchanged a murderer for
2-3 billion euros, they came out with `sound' advice. Azerbaijan is more
important to Hungary than vice versa and therefore the Hungarian government
shouldn't claim that the Azeri president had conned the Hungarian prime
minister. Instead, one ought to play dumb.
*Act dumb / flickr*
If you think that I'm exaggerating, I'm not. The chapter that discusses
this strategy is entitled `Let's dare to be stupid!' (Merjünk buták lenni!)
The suggestion was to take all the blame. The author/authors of the
document suggested that Hungarian diplomats rely on sentences such as: `We
believed that the promise coming from the Azeri ministry was sufficient and
we didn't count on the presidential pardon.' The Hungarians were told that
they would even have to bear the odium of being considered incompetent:
`Azerbaijan is far =85 there is no true expertise of that region in Hungary=85.
We had no knowledge of the Azeri legal system.'
Further suggestions included the use of official silence in the first
couple of days as proof that the Hungarians were totally unprepared for
such a development. At the same time, they wrote, the Hungarians must
emphasize that as far as international law is concerned Budapest acted
legally. Such a strategy, according to the authors, gives Hungary a way out
in the international community while `it doesn't endanger the Hungarian
goals in Azerbaijan.' Through unofficial channels Hungarian diplomats could
tell their foreign colleagues that Baku didn't keep its promise. Such a
strategy will work with the Armenians and the Americans. (I guess, because
they are naive babes-in-arms.)
The document coming from the Hungarian Institute of Foreign Affairs
naturally `wasn't for the public,' but by September 6 it was in the hands
of the editors of *Népszabadság.* It was leaked, just as the July letter of
the IMF/EU delegation and the letter of the European Commission sent to
Budapest on August 31 had been. These leaks indicate to me that some of the
people working for the Hungarian government came to the conclusion that
they cannot support Viktor Orbán's hazardous games and therefore they are
willing to assist the Hungarian opposition by making secret documents that
in one way or another reflect badly on the government public.
From: A. Papazian