Hours after a commotion and racist chants early Sunday in Turkey’s western city of Bursa by an agitated crowd who targeted the visiting Kurdish football team of Amedspor, a brawl was narrowly avoided after some players of the home team Bursaspor allegedly made an attempt to attack Amedspor’s players in the field.
Amedspor released a video of the incident, saying:
“The attack by Bursaspor’s players against our team in Bursa and the following events in the field…”
Sezgin Tanrikulu, deputy for main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), said:
“Amedspor, who has been targeted yesterday in the hotel and today in the football field through racist attacks and physical violence, has come to Bursa to play football. The incidents are provocations staged by circles who have nothing to do with sports ethics or football culture.”
Fan group Amedspor Barikat posted a video on Twitter, showing Amedspor’s goalkeeper tumbling before he can make a goal kick, a hurled smoke firecracker inches away from him.
Twitter user Nese Idil posted another video showing goalkeeper Cantug Temel falling down at another instant of the game after he has apparently been hit by an object flung by fans. The host of the broadcaster is heard saying in the background that the goalkeeper has “flopped.”
While a Twitter account named “Turk Polisi” posted an image of Bursaspor fans waving the poster of a white Renault station wagon, a type of car known to have been widely used in covert operations of state forces in 1990’s to abduct and disappear Kurdish political activists, and the poster of notorious Mahmut Yildirim – codename Yesil – who went missing after he has been accused of murdering many Kurdish political activists in extrajudicial killings, Turkish interior minister Suleyman Soylu posted a message on Twitter, saying:
“The images used in the football game in Bursa, which have nothing to do with a sports event, are unacceptable. Investigations have been launched into public officials who have failed to prevent people from entering the stadium with such images, and those bearing a responsibility have been removed from duty.”
The hashtag “Beyaz Toros” (“White Renault Station Wagon”) has become trending in Twitter.
Source: Gerçek News
