Sport events to ignite racist grudges in Turkey – „Medhat Sinjar“ to deem the situation to be extremely dangerous 

Target Platform – Ahamd Qatma

On March 5th, 2023, the stadium of the Turkish city of Bursa became the scene of violent confrontations, which included throwing stones and water bottles that hit the heads of the players of the „Amedspor“ team. This incident was further accompanied by additional attacks on the guest team, hailing from the Kurdish-majority city of Diyabakir, located in the Southeastern part of the country.

Thus, the match between the clubs “Bursaspor” and “Amed Sport” turned into an arena and a target for various types of projectiles, including (knives, bottles, stones), before the players of the “Amed Sport” club were also attacked in the changing room even though such events seem quite familiar at first glance as well as a recurring incident within the world’s periodicals. However, if we delve deeper into this particular event, its background will provide us more insights.

How did the hostilities begin?

The hostilities were not limited to the field of the stadium, but the circumstances that preceded them indicated that they would take place as it seemed that the authorities in Bursa deliberately ignored the protection of the guest club. In fact, the authorities were supposed to prevent the fans of “Bursaspor” club from entering the stadium, when the hostilities began as, before the start of the match, dozens of Bursa fans gathered outside the residence of the Amedspor players, whose hotel was a target for fireworks and racist anti-Kurdish songs.

Hundreds of video clips were circulating on social media, which revealed how stones, bottles and water bottles were thrown at the heads of Amedspor players, which led to various injuries for a number of players and fans of the Kurdish team. Supporters of “Bursaspor” on the stands waved pictures of Mahmoud Yildirim, nicknamed Yesil and Tariq Umit, two former members of the “Turkish death squads,” who became notorious for carrying out killings and assassinations against Kurds, under the pretext that they posed a threat to Turkish national security.

“Kantug Temel”, the goalkeeper of Amed Spor, was the main target of the grudges and attacks of the Turkish fans, and he had to move away from the goal line because of the assaults, so the match was stopped for a while, and according to what video clips showed, the attacks continued even after the end of the match, and the Amed Spor club account published a live video of the opposing team’s players, storming the field and assaulting their team’s players during the warm-up process before the start of the match.

The presence of the military salute

In addition, Amedspor club revealed that it was attacked, in the corridors of the dressing rooms by Bursaspor stadium officials, specifically the security supervisor of the owners of the field, the security officer, and even employees and police officers, and the club indicated further stated: “The team only goes to play football, the club is above politics, it’s the same city as ours.“

The charged and provocative atmosphere was not limited to the images of those who committed crimes against the Kurdish people, but also included the celebration of the “Bursaspor” fans, reveling in the display of the Turkish military salute, in addition to the attempt of its supporters to enter the stadium and clash with the Kurdish club players at the end of the match, while media outlets showed further video scenes which indicated that a number of members of the security forces participated in the attack on members of the “Amed Sports” team.

Bursaspor won 2-1 over its guest Amedspor, but despite the loss, the Amedspor team remains in the third place with 41 points; 3 points behind the leading team of Corum with 44 points, while Bursaspor reached 25 points and is in the fifteenth place, within the second division league in Turkey.

Similar to the events of Qamishli

The scenes of the attack on the “Amed Sport” club made the events that took place in the city of Qamishli, in Northeastern Syria, in the year 2004 reminiscent, when similar racist-motivated assaults, which the Damascene government was accused of managing at the time, evolved to a massive uprising  against the Syrian government that included all the Kurdish regions in northern Syria. At that time, racist and government-affiliated fans attacked Kurdish young fans, cheering for the “Jihad Club” during a football match with the “Fatwa Team“. The Kurdish youths were attacked in the same way, as it happened with the fans of the „Amed“ Sports club by Turkish racists.

Accordingly, it does not seem that it can be said that the violent event in Bursa was normal or transient, as it previously ignited a massive uprising in Syria, with the masses realizing that the background of the attacks was chauvinistic racism, and not within the framework of competition and rivalry, which opens the way for the future development of events in Turkey. , to what is not commendable.

Accordingly, it does not seem that it can be discerned that the incident in Bursa was normal or transient as the Qamishli events had ignited a massive uprising in Syria, with the masses realizing that the background of the attacks was chauvinistic racism, and that the incident did not occur within the framework of competition and sports rivalry, which further paves the way for the future developments in Turkey; this is not commendable.

Harsh criticism of the authorities’ treatment

Several political and media outlets in Turkey criticized the racist attack against the players and fans of the “Amedspor” club, including the former co-chair of the “HDP”, Salah Demirtas, who confirmed the continuation of the ongoing struggle, while the Diyarbakir Bar Association filed a complaint to the prosecution and called for an investigation into that racist attack. Meanwhile, Orhan Saribal, a representative of the Republican People’s Party, shared a message regarding the racist attack and stated that despite the warnings, no action was taken by the Turkish security, harshly criticizing the attacks against the fans of Amedspor.

In this regard, “Medhat Sinjar”, the general co-chair of the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey, talked to “Target Platform”, about the attack, pointing out that “the situation is very dangerous and volatile towards the elections, and the risk of provocation is very high, especially from the side of the regime, which may want to accuse the Kurds and the PKK for allegedly creating a climate of insecurity in the country.

“Sinjar” also indicated in his statements to “Target”, that “Amedspor played against Bursaspor in 2016 and won against it, and after the match, they sent a tweet to dedicate their victory to the Kurdish fighters in the wall of the Amed region, which angered the people of Bursa,” explaining that “Kurds in Turkey are either very secular or very religious, and the religious traditionally vote for the AKP.“

It was further noted that “after the (last) match, 9 people were detained, but they were immediately released,” saying: that “I do not think there will be any justice for all this violence, but there may be a reactions from the European Football Association and FIFA, through castigations against the Bursaspor club.” He however added that in Turkey, “the Kurds have been using the name Amed for the city of Diyarbakir for a long time, stressing that Amed is the oldest applicable name for the city, and has Assyrian origins, but the Turks do not know all this, and they reject the word Amed“.

Diyarbakir or Amed is the largest city in southeastern Turkey, and the allies placed it within the “Kurdistan” notion that was proposed in the Treaty of Sevres, which drew the borders of the Middle East after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, but was later subjected to Turkish rule, in accordance to the Treaty of Lausanne between Turkey, Britain and France. However, the city remained and still remains a focal point in the conflict between the Turkish State and the various Kurdish revolutions.