Ferda Çetin – Translated from Yeni Özgür Politika,
On Tuesday, in a Champions League match between Istanbul Başakşehir and Paris Saint Germain from France, Başakşehir withdrew from the field. The match was suspended after the fourth referee, Sebastian Coltescu, used racist remarks against Pierre Webo, a member of Başakşehir’s technical team.
The cynical rulers of Turkey tried to benefit, as always, by taking advantage and using the victimisation card.
Tayyip Erdoğan’s team, Başakşehir, was a useful tool for that. In one cynical move, all of Turkeys problems are forgotten. The government, opposition, municipalities, trade unions, and trade associations all united against racism (!?) With “feelings of national unity and integrity”.
Hurriyet newspaper writes, “Turkey belongs to the Turks!” under its logo, and published their headline with “Racism Scandal!”
Tayyip Erdogan, who acts as a racist all the time said “We are always against racism and discrimination in sports and all areas of life”.
Ekrem İmamoğlu who supports the operation of Turkey in Afrin also instantly reacted to racism in France.
Football clubs like Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe, Beşiktaş, and Trabzonspor, which regularly performs various kinds of racism in stadiums in Turkey, instantly, become anti-racist.
This is a very deep subject that can not be explained with words such as hypocrisy and fraud.
Just in the last few years in Turkey alone, there were people who were lynched for listening to Kurdish music, there were people who were murdered since they answered yes to the question, “Are you Kurdish?”, there were people who were beaten for speaking Kurdish on the phone.
The Turkish state is both supporting these racist attacks while never, ever punishing people who commit these racist crimes.
The real issue is these so-called democrats, writers, artists, politicians that do not see their own racism but condemn the racism in France.
Racism is Aydın Metropolitan Mayor Özlem Çerçioğlu’s being elected as the chairman of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) 37th Congress. Çerçioğlu openly supported the occupation of Afrin from Turkey and its mercenaries and paid money for her name to be written on a missile that was fired into the city.
This year, 13 Kurdish families from Derik, who came to work in the Çekerek district of Yozgat, were attacked on July 18. The attackers were the headman of the village and the people of the neighborhood. They said “We will not let you live here,” to the Kurdish villagers. None of the so-called ‘anti-racists’, Tayyip, İmamoğlu spoke one word to condemn those racist attacks.
In early September of this year, 16 Kurdish workers, who went from Mardin Mazıdağı to Sakarya to collect hazelnuts, were attacked by villagers.
“Do you think this is your country, you are a pack of dogs” they said to Kurdish workers.
Kurdish workers returned to their cities after the attack. Although pictures and videos of the attack were published none of these people who condemn racism in France condemned that incident.
People who are curious about anti-racist football should watch Amedspor’s matches. They see what racism is in those matches.
Racism is not only limited to state and government policy in Turkey. The masses are racist in that country too.
The Republic of Turkey, since its establishment, was always been a racist state against Kurds, Armenians, Circassians, Greeks, Assyrian-Syriac people.
This fact is widely known. The main issue is social, widespread racism that is denied and ignored. It is the fascism of the masses.
People who claim to be against racism, are not only responsible for what they say or don’t say; They are also responsible for not taking a stand against racism about what they see, watch, and hear.
They are responsible for speaking up.
Therefore, racists in Turkey’s condemning racism in France is a lie, it is blatant hypocrisy.
