Lüper Lig in Turkey | Galatasaray vs. Amedspor: Why anti-Kurdish racism in football concerns us all

Fans of the Kurdish football club Amedspor are celebrating their club's promotion to the Turkish Süper Lig in May this year. Photo: dpa/Mehmet Masum Suer On Saturday there was a football game in Turkey that we also have to deal with here in Germany. On paper, the established top club Galatasaray from Istanbul with a huge market value of 381.5 million euros met Amedspor in the Turkish Süper Lig, whose total value amounts to a modest 31.9 million euros. Despite this stark power imbalance, the two teams fought a dramatic duel, which Galatasaray narrowly won 4-3 in the end. But what happened in the stands, on the streets and in social networks during these 90 minutes quickly pushed the sporting events into the background.

The Amedspor men's soccer team played in the Turkish second division until 2024 before gaining promotion to the Süper Lig this year. The crux of the matter lies in the club's name: "Amed" is the Kurdish name of the city of Diyarbakır. The decision to call this team Amedspor is therefore a conscious acknowledgment of the Kurdish identity of this city and its residents. This declaration of identity alone is enough for Turkish nationalists and fascists to construct enemy images and attack the team and its fans.

Sibel Schick is an author and journalist. She was born in Turkey in 1985 and moved to Germany in 2009. She wrote the column “In Bad Company” for “nd”. Now she speaks out about feminist topics once a month in the new video format “It’s always hotter,” which we also publish in written form in our Monday edition. Her non-fiction books are published by S. Fischer. So does »My body – whose decision? Why We Need Reproductive Justice,” which was recently published.

If you imagine the enormous structural hurdles this club has to deal with on a daily basis, its success is even more remarkable. At almost every game, Amedspor experiences discrimination - from racist slogans in the stands to physical violence. The fact that the club is still playing at the top shows great resilience. But the hatred erupts regularly. Galatasaray fans also repeatedly shouted anti-Kurdish and racist slogans during the game on Saturday evening. Videos were also distributed here in Germany. A blogger posted a particularly striking example: the opponent was verbally attacked with derogatory insults such as “dirty Kurds”.

Shortly after the final whistle, the next scandal followed, which further heated up tempers. Galatasaray released a promotional video for a new jersey, which featured, among other things, yellow packaging paper. This visual design immediately reminded many people of yellow bags - a symbol with a disturbing racist background. In this context, yellow bags represent the body bags with which the Turkish security forces transported “top terrorists.” In the past, opposing Amedspor fans have even deliberately held up yellow bags in the stands. This is psychological racist violence and a blatant threat.

This is by no means a matter of necessarily accusing Galatasaray of having bad intentions. But the club simply should have known better. The marketing department should have been aware that a video with yellow wrapping paper immediately after a game against Amedspor would evoke exactly such associations. The video could have been released on a different day or simply cut out the yellow paper - which would have taken the video exactly one second. Galatasaray has since removed the post from social networks.

But what does all of this have to do with Germany? We also have to deal with anti-Kurdish racism in this country in order to be able to classify it correctly. Numerous Turkish and Kurdish people also live in Germany; The conflict has been taking place here for a long time. Essentially, this is about protecting minorities within minorities. Do we want to continue to hurt each other; or do we try to heal the injuries together? This is exactly what is part of genuine solidarity.

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