By Mark Baber
February 11 – As Third Division club Amedspor, from Turkey’s largest Kurdish-populated city Diyarbakir, enjoys a run to the Turkish cup quarter-finals, it finds itself under attack from the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) – with player and fan bans imposed and police raids for alleged ‘ideological propaganda’.
The football team’s cup run, which has included knocking out two top flight clubs and drawing 3-3 in the quarter-final first leg against Turkish President Erdogan’s favorite club Fenerbahce at the weekend, has put the club in the firing line as Erdogan’s administration continues its war against the Kurdish PKK and clamps down on freedom of speech for Kurds, peace demonstrators, academics and journalists.
The club has seen over 100 supporters arrested by security forces, its headquarters raided in an attempt to find the authors of a pro-PKK tweet, supporters banned from the first leg home tie against Fenerbahce after chanting “resistance is everywhere” and star player, Deniz Naki banned for 12 games by the TFF for “ideological propaganda” after dedicating the win against Bursaspor to Kurds killed in the government crackdown, signing off with the Kurdish for “Long live freedom.”
The club’s chairman, Ali Karakas told Middle East Eye, “We train every day surrounded by the sounds of tank and artillery shelling. These raids are not going to intimidate or demoralise us. But what we are facing is pure and simple racial discrimination and we will resort to every legal means available to seek justice.”
On Monday, a TFF panel rejected Naki’s appeal against the unprecedented 12-match ban whilst the team faces possible additional sanctions after the players held up a banner before the Fenerbahce game stating, ‘Children shouldn’t die, they should come to the match’.
The actions of the TFF against Amedspor stand in stark contrast to the lack of action against supporters booing to disrupt minutes of silence for the 129 victims of the atrocity in Paris.
Karakas says the club will take the matters to UEFA arguing the treatment of his team amounts to political interference in football and racism, although there may be more chance of his side winning the Turkish Cup than Europe’s governing body reigning in the TFF.
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