The idea of holding a Pan-Armenians Games came from Soviet diplomat Ashot Melik-Shahnazaryan, who first thought of the idea of organizing universal games for all Armenians while he was on a business trip in 1965 to Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, that was getting ready to participate in the first Pan-African Games. But because Armenia was a Soviet republic and that such an idea was considered by Moscow to be nationalistic, Shahnazaryan had to wait until Armenia attained independence to try to put forth his brainchild.