When Erzurumspor and Ankaragucu clashed in the second-best football league on Sunday, all players lined up to protest against the war in Ukraine.
Before the kickoff, the two teams’ players posed wearing t-shirts with the text ‘No War’.
Except one.
Erzurumspor’s captain, Aykut Demir, chose as the only one to refuse to wear the shirt with the protest against the war. It writes the Daily Mirror.
A startling monopoly, as Demir explains with the lack of focus on the armed conflicts in the Middle East. Especially the civil war in Yemen.
– Thousands of people die every single day in the Middle East. I’m sad too. I share the pain of the innocent people, he says according to the newspaper.
– Those who ignore the persecution there do these things when it happens in Europe. I did not want to wear the t-shirt because it was not about those countries, explains Demir, who has felt compelled to explain his position as he has received harsh criticism for the lack of protest.
According to the UN, about 377,000 people had lost their lives in the war in Yemen by the end of 2021.
On the football field, several nations refuse to face Russia. You can read more about that here: Several football nations are backing the boycott of Russia
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