 |
Diyarbakırspor retreats from withdrawal decision
“All [civil society organizations] in Diyarbakır have voiced their views in favor of our team’s continuation of its campaign in the league. It falls to us is to respect this will despite our previous announcement,” said Sümer Çetin, the team’s chairman.
Çetin had announced on Sunday that his team would boycott their match against Galatasaray this weekend. The team made the decision in reaction to racist slogans directed at them by Gaziantepspor fans during a soccer match accusing Diyarbakırspor of supporting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
A large number of civil society groups in the city, however, voiced their disapproval of the decision, saying Diyarbakırspor should continue its adventure in the league.
“We expect the Turkish Soccer Federation [TFF] to do what is necessary against racist, ugly and bad slogans,” Sümer added.
The team had announced its withdrawal from the league in late September after the extreme level of intolerance they experienced during a match at Bursaspor. The host team’s fans were hostile toward Diyarbakırspor players and fans, accusing them of being “separatists.”
Sümer also extended his thanks to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and President Abdullah Gül for the sensitivity they showed in Diyarbakırspor’s experiences with racism on soccer pitches. “We invite them to our match against Galatasaray,” he added.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| AMANDA PAUL |  |
||
| Gas is cut while Europe freezes | |||
| MÜMTAZER TÜRKÖNE |  |
||
| The Kurdish issue has divided the state | |||
| ABDULLAH BOZKURT |  |
||
| Private debt stock in Turkey | |||
| BERİL DEDEOĞLU |  |
||
| Latest state of affairs in Turkey | |||
| CUMALİ ÖNAL |  |
||
| US, Israel will not attack Iran | |||
| SUAT KINIKLIOĞLU |  |
||
| Turkey's media | |||
| DOĞU ERGİL |  |
||
| ‘Religious youth’ | |||
| ERGUN BABAHAN |  |
||
| The benefit of the MİT crisis | |||
| JOOST LAGENDIJK |  |
||
| Helpless in the face of disaster | |||
| MARKAR ESAYAN |  |
||
| How did we step into the missionary threat trap ?(2) | |||
| MELİH ARAT |  |
||
| ‘Future, Inc.’ | |||
| EMRE USLU |  |
||
| MİT and government losers in showdown | |||
| CHARLOTTE MCPHERSON |  |
||
| Anger punishes itself | |||
| İHSAN YILMAZ |  |
||
| Should the Hizmet movement form a political party? | |||
| KLAUS JURGENS |  |
||
| 9-19-9-6 or 53-22-11-7 or… | |||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
