Crackdown on (Çarşı) Beşiktaş fans- Hypocrisy in Turkish football

Beşiktaş Fans in Action

As of now, 36 Beşiktaş fans are banned from the stadiums for a year. Some fan leaders like Alen Markaryan are among the banned fans. Official reason is that they were “swearing”. Istanbul Police Deparment detained, interrogated, worked on the security cameras and the concluded on the ban. This is a crackdown executed by the alliance of Istanbul police and Beşiktaş administration. It is intended to destroy our famous fandom. Yıldırım Demirören, whom I name the worst Beşiktaş president ever, had a few weeks ago stated to “clean the stadium” and this is what he does now. Yes, in the last game, some fans began to swear at him but Mr. Demirören cannot tolerate any level of criticism and he does not hide his intention of “cleaning”.  After his statement, there happened to be fights in the stadiums and pro-Demirören gangs were rumored to terrorize anti-Demirören. Where the hell Police Deparment was then?

Çarşı and Greenpeace with a huge placard, standing against a possible nuclear power plant establishment in Turkey (Wikipedia)

It is in fact ironic that Alen and his fellows had been stopping protests for more than two years. I had written against his group, Çarşı, angrily for being accomplices of Demirören. I also criticised them heavily in other accounts but still Çarşı is the most colorful fan group in Turkey. Its slightly leftist and anarchistic stance of course angers some… Now Alen, an Armeanian-Turkish citizen and the most famous fan leader, is a victim of the president’s fan cleansing… In fact, this is where to draw a lesson: Never cooperate with the Unjust (!) (Alen seems to be very suprised as he speaks to Hürriyet)It seems that Mr. Demirören now follows Fenerbahçe president, Aziz Yıldırım’s method, eliminating all fan groups and creating a docile commodified fan base…

Among the banned ones, there are also those fan leaders who were rumored to cooperate with Mr. Demirören and thus attacking other Çarşı fans. I would not mind if these were the banned only. But in this “cleansing operation”, victims and guilty parties are all treated in the same way…

So where the hell officious Police Deparment people were when
a) there were racist slogans against Diyarbakırspor,
b) some club presidents swore and explicitly threatened referees,
c) when Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe fans swear collectively,
d) when League TV were prevented to broadcast a Fenerbahçe game…


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