{"id":44308,"date":"2011-09-23T11:52:55","date_gmt":"2011-09-23T08:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=44308"},"modified":"2023-07-25T15:03:34","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T12:03:34","slug":"sport-overcomes-politics-as-turkey-hosts-israelis-amid-rising-tensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2011\/09\/23\/sport-overcomes-politics-as-turkey-hosts-israelis-amid-rising-tensions\/","title":{"rendered":"Sport overcomes politics as Turkey hosts Israelis amid rising tensions"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>By <strong>Ben Hartman<\/strong>, for CNN<\/div>\n<div>September 22, 2011 &#8212; Updated 1159 GMT (1959 HKT)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><!-- .cnn_html_slideshow_metadata > .cnn_html_media_utility:before { padding-right: 1px; content: \">>\"; font-size: 9px; line-height: 12px; color: red; }.cnnstrylccimg640 { margin: 0pt 27px 14px 0pt; }.captionText { opacity: 1; }.cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a, .cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a:visited, .cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a:link, .captionText a, .captionText a:visited, .captiontext a:link { color: rgb(0, 66, 118); outline: medium none; } --><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-44309\" title=\"110921022507-besiktas-carsi-tattoo-horizontal-gallery\" src=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/110921022507-besiktas-carsi-tattoo-horizontal-gallery.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/110921022507-besiktas-carsi-tattoo-horizontal-gallery.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/110921022507-besiktas-carsi-tattoo-horizontal-gallery-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/div>\n<div><cite id=\"galleryCaption002\">A Besiktas fan shows a tattoo which reads &#8220;Carsi&#8221; &#8212; the name of the club&#8217;s most famous supporters&#8217; club.<\/cite><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a name=\"em0\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><strong>STORY HIGHLIGHTS<\/strong><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Clash between football teams from Turkey and Israeli passes peacefully in Istanbul<\/li>\n<li>There had been fears that Maccabi Tel Aviv&#8217;s players and fans would be attacked<\/li>\n<li>Besiktas supporters insist they have no problem with Israelis, but wanted to win<\/li>\n<li>Just a dozen Maccabi fans attended the match, played amid rising political tension<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Istanbul, Turkey (CNN)<\/strong> &#8212; They traveled to Istanbul  amid fears that mob violence might erupt as relations between two  once-friendly nations turned ugly.<\/p>\n<p>But if Maccabi Tel Aviv and the Israeli club&#8217;s supporters received  any trouble from the people of Turkey last week, it was only on the  football pitch.<\/p>\n<p>After a 5-1 trouncing at the hands of Istanbul&#8217;s Besiktas, Maccabi  safely returned to Tel Aviv the next day as concerns that the team and  its fans would be in danger proved unfounded.<\/p>\n<p>The Europa League match appeared to be a perfect convergence of  sports and politics, coming as relations between Israel and Turkey  reached an all-time low.<\/p>\n<p>Less than two weeks before the match, Turkish Prime Minister Recep  Tayyip Erdogan expelled the Israeli ambassador over the Middle Eastern  country&#8217;s refusal to apologize for a naval commando raid on the SS Mavi  Marmara, on which nine Turkish activists were killed as they made their  way to the blockaded Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n<p>Days later, Turkey broke off military ties with Israel &#8212; and  Jerusalem announced the formation of a naval alliance with Greece,  Turkey&#8217;s historical enemy.<\/p>\n<p>Erdogan has since threatened to deploy Turkish warships to escort the  next Gaza Flotilla and to increase Turkish naval presence in the  Eastern Mediterranean to counter Israeli &#8220;bullying practices&#8221; in the  area.<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"em1\"><\/a>Turkey quickly became a state where Israelis no longer feel welcome,  just as Maccabi Tel Aviv headed to Istanbul for a match against a team  renowned for having some of the wildest fans in Turkish soccer.<\/p>\n<p>Elif Batuman, a regular contributor to The New Yorker and a  writer-in-residence at Koc University, described the Besiktas squad as  &#8220;the more working-class team.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Of the three main Istanbul teams, Besiktas is kind of the underdog.  They have the least money, the most run-down stadium,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With the other two big Istanbul teams (Galatasaray and Fenerbahce),  the stadiums don&#8217;t have any particular ties to their neighborhoods, and  the fan bases are more spread out. They call themselves the neighborhood  team, the people&#8217;s team.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of a talk on Turkish soccer at an art gallery in central  Istanbul the day before the match, Batuman described Besiktas supporters  as being tied not only to the neighborhood but also, to some extent, to  a political way of life.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>Israel isn&#8217;t our problem, it&#8217;s the country&#8217;s problem. Every Besiktas game is crazy<br \/>\nKemal Yuksel<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re the most political of the soccer teams: they support  Greenpeace, they do blood drives, they&#8217;re environmentalists. They&#8217;re  definitely not pro-American, the ones I&#8217;ve talked to, but they say they  don&#8217;t dislike Americans, only American policy. They are also definitely  not pro-Israel and they support the Palestinians.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He said the match against Maccabi, the most successful club in Israel, was &#8220;clearly seen as a rallying event.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Israeli media aired reports that Maccabi players who serve in the  Israel Defense Forces reserves were banned from taking part in the game  out of fear for their safety. The report turned out to be false, but  was in keeping with a general sense in Israel that the team was heading  straight into the lion&#8217;s den at the worst possible moment, prompting  calls for the game to be canceled or forfeited.<\/p>\n<p>By mid-afternoon on Thursday, Besiktas fans began pouring into a  square in the heart of their neighborhood, a short walk from the  stadium. Cheering and downing copious amounts of Efes Pilsen beer, they  locked arms and sang about the evils of the hated Fenerbahce and the  beauty of all that is Besiktas.<\/p>\n<p>Those Besiktas supporters spoken to at the pre-game drink-up did not  appear to have the Gaza Strip or the Mavi Marmara on their minds, and  were completely indifferent to the presence of an Israeli reporter  scribbling on a notepad in their midst.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>They&#8217;re the most political of the soccer teams: they support Greenpeace, they do blood drives, they&#8217;re environmentalists<br \/>\nElif Batuman on Besiktas fans<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;We hate Fenerbahce, not Israel,&#8221; said Kazim, a student from Yildiz  Technical University in Istanbul, who also said he did not believe the  war of words between the Turkish PM and Netanyahu gave the game any  extra meaning.<\/p>\n<p>Kemal Yuksel, a student at the Istanbul Technical University said the  Besiktas fans are &#8220;just interested in football, not politics.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We live for Besiktas and it doesn&#8217;t matter what country you&#8217;re from  &#8212; we want to beat you,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Israel isn&#8217;t our problem, it&#8217;s the  country&#8217;s problem. Every Besiktas game is crazy, doesn&#8217;t matter if we  play Maccabi or anyone else.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At the same time that the Besiktas fans were pounding pre-game  lagers, a crowd of around 200 people marched from Taksim Square in  central Istanbul to the Inonu stadium, vowing not to forget or forgive  the Mavi Marmara incident. Wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the pictures  of the nine Turkish activists and with some protesters carrying flags  of the Lebanese Shi&#8217;ite militia Hezbollah, they made their way towards  the stadium without arrest or incident.<\/p>\n<p>The protest was a repeat of sorts of a smaller gathering held the  night before outside the Divan hotel where the Maccabi players were  staying. A crowd of about 20 people waving Palestinian flags stood in  silence across from the hotel for a couple of hours before filing away  into the night.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, a block further down the street past the Divan hotel,  three street-walkers of unclear gender plied their wares, drawing  slightly more interest from passersby than the nearby anti-Israel  protest.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>We told everyone we were Israeli. No-one gave us any trouble whatsoever<br \/>\nIsrael Mukhtar<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Like everywhere else the Maccabi players traveled during their visit,  the Divan was under heavy police protection. Outside the hotel, two  armored police vans were parked at the ready, with officers in front of  the vehicles with sub-machine guns. Around a dozen other police officers  stood in formation next to the vans, but were not wearing riot gear.  Next to the vehicles, a police sedan idled, while a single officer  napped in the front seat.<\/p>\n<p>The heightened security continued inside the stadium, where dozens of  riot police circled the field and plainclothes police and security  officials kept a constant watch on the event.<\/p>\n<p>Once the match kicked off, it took only three minutes for Besiktas  forward Hugo Almeida to put his team on the board with the first of his  two goals. Maccabi answered soon after halftime through forward Roi  Kehane, but the visitors never threatened again and Besiktas rolled to a  5-1 victory before a raucous home crowd.<\/p>\n<p>The 12 hardy Maccabi Tel Aviv fans who attended the game, protected  by at least 20 police per head, were seated in the fenced-off visitors&#8217;  section, which was book-ended on the left and right by two sections of  empty seats patrolled by stadium security.<\/p>\n<p>One of those Israeli fans who made the trip to Istanbul was Israel  Mukhtar, 45, who was in town on his first-ever trip abroad with the  Maccabi squad.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We went all around the markets and the nightclubs [in Istanbul] and  we told everyone we were Israeli. No-one gave us any trouble  whatsoever,&#8221; Mukhtar said, adding &#8220;all of the security was well done and  we never felt a threat for a second, I didn&#8217;t even see a single  Palestinian flag.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mukhtar and his friends, nearly all of whom were middle-aged men who  seemed to know each other prior to the trip, said the danger inherent in  the match was overblown by the Israeli media.<\/p>\n<p>They praised the professionalism of Turkish security forces, and  expressed their feelings that the diplomatic tension between the two  countries is on the upper levels of their respective government, and not  reflected in a visceral hatred from people on the streets of Turkey&#8217;s  largest city &#8212; as opposed to Cairo, for instance, where a mob ransacked  the embassy a week earlier forcing the Israeli staff to flee in drag  under evacuation by Egyptian commandos.<\/p>\n<p>Even with the final score of the match reflecting an on-field  massacre of the Israeli visitors, Mukhtar said he was not disappointed  by his decision to attend the match.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To be honest, it made me proud to be Israeli. To know that out of 6  million people (in Israel), you&#8217;re one of only 12 who was willing to  come &#8230; I think it means something.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ben Hartman is a reporter for the Jerusalem Post.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ben Hartman, for CNN September 22, 2011 &#8212; Updated 1159 GMT (1959 HKT) A Besiktas fan shows a tattoo which reads &#8220;Carsi&#8221; &#8212; the name of the club&#8217;s most famous supporters&#8217; club. STORY HIGHLIGHTS Clash between football teams from Turkey and Israeli passes peacefully in Istanbul There had been fears that Maccabi Tel Aviv&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":44309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[2528,2529,6950],"class_list":["post-44308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-syria","tag-besiktas","tag-carsi","tag-maccabi-tel-aviv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}