the Kurdish players of Amedspor-Corriere.it were attacked on the pitch and in the changing rooms

From the battlefield to the soccer field. Football in Turkey risks succumbing, or at least falters, when politics is involved. And so it happens that a championship match between the Bursaspor (who played at home) and theAmedspor, a team composed only of Kurdish players, turns into a manhunt against the away team, complete with objects (even a knife) raining onto the pitch from the stands and subsequent attacks in the locker room by team security agents at home against the players of the opposing team. The background to this match – for the record which ended 2-1 for the hosts – was the aversion from the most nationalist part of Turkey and the regime in office towards the Kurdish people. In fact, this episode is only one of many that have occurred recently in Turkey, also in the sporting arena, to the detriment of the Kurds and which now see alleged fans as protagonists who are no longer stopped even by fear of sporting and non-sporting sanctions, given that to supporters of Bursaspor last Sunday it didn’t even seem to matter that there were videos – which are already circulating freely on the net – documenting what was shameful that happened in the stadium and outside. As Amedspor denounced on Twitter in fact: At the end of the match our players were then physically attacked in the corridors of the dressing rooms by Bursaspor’s private security supervisor, the club’s security manager, club staff and security officers .

After all, it all started well before the kick-off and continued throughout the match with the referee letting the game play as if nothing had happened, ignoring the tensions in the stands: every time an Amedspor player approached the flag corner kick or the goalkeeper trying to take a goal clearance were in fact targeted with throwing objects. Bottles of water, lighters, firecrackers exploded nearby and, as mentioned, even a knife. And the referee let it go. Making you think that the Buraspor may even avoid future sporting penalties.
Why all this? Amedspor is a company based in Diyarbakir, one of the Turkish cities that has the greatest presence of Kurds, so much so that it is defined as the capital of Turkish Kurdistan. Hence the reason why, in this case, a football match is intertwined with the socio-political tensions in the country. On the one hand there are those who ask for the independence of Kurdistan and the recognition of political, civil and cultural rights for Kurds residing in Turkey; on the other hand, the government is ready to intervene with force to maintain the status quo.

However, seven people were ultimately arrested in connection with these incidents at the stadium. According to the statement of Bursa Governorate, three of the detainees are even private security agents of Buraspor. But this time, especially because of the footage that relaunched the riots in the stadium all over the world, the police also paid, unable to keep calm: 3 public safety managers were suspended from their duties.
After all, that there would have been accidents at the stadium was predictable: the night before the match, fireworks had already been launched against the hotel where the players and the staff were staying.Amedspor.
But the worst, as mentioned, was seen at the stadium. Even some banners were unrolled in the stands inviting the Kurds to be killed. The most chilling were those representing a white Taurus model car, identified as one that had been linked to the unsolved murders of prominent Kurdish figures in the 1990s, and one showing the face of a man identical to Mahmut Yildirim, an official of the Turkish secret services known by the nickname of Yeşil, suspected of being the author of at least 8 murders of Kurds , wanted by Interpol since 1999 and never traced, despite the fact that, according to some reliable testimonies, he is still alive. In short, an explicit invitation to violence, so much so that the Minister of the Interior, Sleyman Soylu, announced the launch of an investigation into precisely who carried the banners onto the field: Images outside football are unacceptable and cannot be associated to sports. An investigation was launched against public officials who showed weakness in allowing these images into the stadium and the public officials concerned were suspended. Baster?