Soccer could cost Turkish Prime Minister votes in Trabzon


In much of Turkey the question is not whether Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Democracy Party (AKP) will win June 12 elections but by what margin. The Black Sea town of Trabzon may be the exception after the city’s Trabzonspor soccer club lost its bid for the Turkish Spor Toto Super League title to Istanbul’s Fenerbahce.

Trabzonspor fans vented their anger in the front yard of an AKP office in Istanbul because Mr. Erdogan, a former soccer player, is known to be an ardent Fenerbahce fan who met with club officials before the match. He is said to have counseled Fenerbahce on how to win the championship. On Facebook, Trabzonspor fans warned that they would respond at the ballot box.

Mr. Erdogan was quick to try to repair the damage. Donning a shirt and tie in Trabzon’s blue and maroon colors, Mr. Erdogan said “it is wrong to turn this into a political campaign. Because as a prime minister, the importance I give to Trabzon's love for sports is evident. Wrong acts may have been committed, but it would be wrong to put the prime minister on the target. With my personality and character I cannot be associated with such a thing. It is merciless.”

Turkish columnist Cemal Ersen takes the fans’ threat serious because opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy Volkan Canalioğlu won the last election in Trabzon because of his support for Trabzonspor.

Trabzon is known for its legendary soccer club, its fanatical football fans and hot-tempered, explosive inhabitants who are quicker with a knife than with their wits.

Not everyone agrees with Mr. Ersen. Sports sociologist Ahmet Talimciler believes 
Trabzonspor’s loss on the pitch will be forgotten by the time the elections take place. “It will only matter for a short time. Those who vote for the AK Party will do so again. I don't think the AK Party votes will be affected. If it had happened one or two days before the elections, it might have been something, but 20-25 days will have passed and things will cool down before then,” Mr. Talimciler told Turkish daily Zaman.

Mr. Talimceler argues that Mr. Erdogan benefits from his knowledge and support for the beautiful game. “A politician who comes from a football tradition is positive in the eyes of the public,” he said.

The Trabzonspor-Fenerbahce incident is not the first time Mr. Erdogan got into hot water because of his actions regarding or comments on soccer. 

In January, the prime minister encountered angry fans wnhen he attended the opening of Istanbul club Galatasray’s new Ali Sami Yen Sports Complex Turk Telekom Arena. Mr. Erdogan reacted by saying that Galatasary had not spent a cent on the new stadium, overlooking the fact that the fact that the club had given land to the government in exchange for its support.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Intellectual honesty in Israel & Palestine produces radically different outcomes

Image
  Just published! By James M. Dorsey To watch a video version of this story or listen to an audio podcast click here . Thank you for your support and loyalty. Intellectual honesty is a rare commodity in the divide between Israelis and Palestinians. It is even rarer with the rise of Jewish ultra-nationalism and a generation of Israelis and Palestinians nurtured on prejudiced, biased, and often supremacist perceptions of the other. The irony is that historically, it was far-right militants, and currently, it is fringe left-wing intellectuals who displayed intellectual honesty, even if their conclusions differ radically. With few exceptions, intellectual honesty has long been lost on the Israeli right and left. What intellectual honesty survives is posited in fringe pockets of the left that propagate a paradigm cultural change on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide that goes against the grain of mainstream Israeli and Palestinian thinking and, in today’s fog of war, has
Read more

Israeli & Palestinian war crimes? Yes. Genocide? Maybe. A talk with Omer Bartov

Image
  To watch a video version of this story on YouTube please click  here. An audio podcast is available on Soundcloud. Hi, and welcome to the Turbulent World with me James M. Dorsey, as your host. Words matter. No more so than in legal settings. Genocide is the word most associated with Israel's more than one-month-long assault on Gaza. In response to the October 7 Hamas attack against Israel, in which at least 1,200, mostly civilian, Israelis were killed. Genocide and Holocaust scholars, including those who believe that Israel has and is committing war crimes in its assault are divided about whether Israeli actions amount to genocide. Even so, they warn that Israeli actions could lead to genocide, if it not already has. What is certain is that optics streaming out of Gaza of the destruction and the plight of innocent Palestinian civilians, including large numbers of children and babies, explain the popular use of the term genocide when discussing the Israeli assault.
Read more

Pakistan caught in the middle as China’s OBOR becomes Saudi-Iranian-Indian battleground

Image
By James M. Dorsey Pakistani General Raheel Sharif walked into a hornet’s nest when he stepped off a private jet in Riyadh two weeks ago to take command of a Saudi-led, 41-nation military alliance. Things have gone from bad to worse since. General Shareef had barely landed when Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman dashed the Pakistani’s hopes to include Iran in the alliance that nominally was created to fight terrorism rather than confront Iran. The general’s hopes were designed to balance Pakistan’s close alliance with Saudia Arabia with the fact that it shares a volatile border with Iran and is home to the world’s second largest Shiite Muslim community. General Sharif’s ambition had already been rendered Mission Impossible before he landed with Saudi Arabia charging that Iran constitutes the world’s foremost terrorist threat . In a recent interview with the Saudi-owned Middle East Broadcasting television network, Prince Mohammed, who also serves a
Read more