The rise of ‘Kurdish Barcelona’ that can change Turkey

Amedspor, the Kurdish football team as soon as promoted to the Turkish top flightthe Super Lig, tells a story of resilience and defense of identity through sport, but it is also a sign of changing times in a Turkey that only 20 years ago rejected the very existence of the Kurds. “A huge goal achieved despite all the obstacles,” noted sports commentator Fikri Ik who compared the relationship between Amedspor and its fans to that between the Catalans and Barcelona“Mes que un club” as they say in Catalonia.

The team from the capital of Turkish Kurdistan

Amedspor is the story of a club widely associated with the Kurdish identity and the city of Diyarbakr (Amed in Kurdish). The team from the ‘capital’ of Turkish Kurdistan with two promotions in three years conquered the Super Lig, sending most of the fans into ecstasy 15 million Kurds of Türkiye, as demonstrated by the carousels in Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara. All with team flags and never the banned Kurdish ones, but there was no shortage of tension: on the banks of the Bosphorus the Galatasaray fans attacked the cheering Kurdish supporters.

Flags prohibited

Decisive in Amedspor’s season was the Senegalese Mbaye Diagneamong the best scorers in the championship. After the match the attacker earned promotion he displayed the flag of Senegal, yellow, red and green, the same colors as the historic Kurdish one. The club managers had to intervene to explain it to the policemen on the sidelines who were about to intervene. Episodes like these are a reminder that Amedspor’s rise goes far beyond the sporting level. Saved by the municipality of Diyarbakir from bankruptcy and re-established in its current form in 2015, although its origins date back decades earlier through various denominations, Amedspor has long occupied a unique position in Turkish football. The colors are red and green, the same as the watermelon symbol of the city, and two of the three colors of the Kurdish flag.

The name change was authorized at the time of the first peace process between the Turkish government and the PKK: Amedspor was finally able to take a Kurdish name, which was unthinkable before, but the peace process failed and the two-year period 2015-2016 turned out to be among the bitterest of the conflict that began in 1984 which caused 45 thousand victims.

Disciplinary sanctions

The Kurdish name has put Amedspor in the sights of the federation and opponents: the club has been subject to numerous disciplinary sanctions, fines and controls. Players, managers and fans were also targeted incidents of racism and, in some cases, physical violence. In 2016 players and managers were attacked on several trips, and since then the team has often played matches away from home without the support of its fans for safety reasons.

Supporters, including minors, have often been filmed and reported by officials and fans for actions such as remaining seated during the national anthem, behavior that does not constitute a crime under Turkish law, but which has caused them more than one problem. One of the most serious incidents occurred in March 2023 during a match against Bursaspor, when opposing fans threw knives and other objects on the pitch, displaying symbols linked to the extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances that affected the Kurds in the twenty years following the 1980 coup. Despite the gravity of the situation, the match was not interrupted.

The scars of the conflict with the PKK

Several fines were imposed for posts on social media considered pro-PKK, even a video of a fan with a braid (typical of Kurdish fighters) and Kurdish music in the background. Now Amedspor’s arrival in the top flight represents an opportunity to demonstrate that Turkey is ready to leave behind a social conflict that has lasted far too long and that the scars of the conflict with the PKK have healed. A positive signal in this sense came from the congratulations of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the leader di ultradestra Devlet Bahceli. The jump in category will bring more demanding challenges, greater media exposure and higher expectations for the club but also an opportunity for Turkey to close one of the bloodiest pages in its history.