Istanbul has a right to be upset that it is not among the cities short-listed to host the 2012 Olympic Games. Only three years ago, Turkey’s commercial capital made it to the short-list to hold the 2008 Games. Nothing has changed in that time. If anything, Turkey’s claim to be the first majority Muslim country to stage the Games has improved. The economy is no longer in crisis, and in eight years time, Turkey may well be in the final stages of joining the European Union.
So what went wrong? In their decision to short-list London, Madrid, Moscow, New York and Paris for the final vote in July 2005, the International Olympic Committee appears to have gone against its own selection criteria. The IOC previously spoke of getting away from “gigantic” and was looking for “green” credentials. Yet it has chosen five major capital cities.
Leipzig, along with Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro and Havana was encouraged to invest substantial sums of money to put together Olympic proposals. This city of just 500,000 people, located in the still depressed region of former East Germany, produced what many agree was an excellent plan, but according to a German IOC official, it was just “one size too small”.
In 2001, Istanbul proved to the IOC committee that it was a suitable candidate and in the light of the new green emphasis, its organizers worked hard to address the challenge. With a population of around 10 million, the city does not fit the criterion of a smaller venue, but nor do any of the five selected cities.
If security were an issue following the bombings of British and Jewish targets in Istanbul, it must be said that with the exception of Paris, all the other four short-listed venues have suffered recent terrorist activity. Athens was selected before the Greek police finally cracked the veteran terrorist group responsible for years of assassinations and bombings. And even now, as the Greeks race to finish their chaotic preparations for this year’s Games, there are still bomb attacks and serious doubts about security.
Of course, only one of the nine cities bidding for the 2012 Games could win. Nevertheless, when candidates pour money and resources into meeting the IOC’s guidelines, it is reprehensible that the final choice ignores these criteria. Many Turks will be seeing Istanbul’s rejection as another insult to a modernizing state, simply because it is Muslim and is therefore seen to be out of the international loop. The IOC could have taken into consideration the idea that a Games hosted by a Muslim country would improve relations between Muslim states and the rest of the world.
Istanbul met all legitimate criteria to stage the 2012 Olympics. It can therefore be suspected an illegitimate criterion caused it to fail.
