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ISTANBULSoccer fans from around the world navigated a logistical labyrinth to reach Ataturk Olympic Stadium on June 10 for the 2023 Champions League Final. During the annual tournament, organized by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA)the governing body of European soccerelite clubs compete to earn the title of best in Europe. The final is widely regarded as the most prestigious match in global club soccer.

This years final pit Manchester City against Inter Milan andbetween the traffic, police barricades, and other security measuressome attendees reportedly walked up to five miles to attend. But they were overwhelmingly merry as they chanted, waved flags, riled up fellow supporters, and teased their opponents. After a tense showdown, Manchester City won 1-0.

The checkpoints were put in place by UEFA and Turkish law enforcement. UEFA was found primarily responsible for chaos at the 2022 Champions League final in Pariswhen visiting fans were tear-gassed and pepper sprayed by local police at congested stadium entrancesand this year no one in event management wanted to take any chances. Turkish authorities and UEFA were also keen to project control after rumors that the match would be moved out of Turkey due to projected political unrest following the countrys pivotal election just weeks before, when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan secured an unprecedented third term in office.

Like many of Istanbuls other cultural landmarks, the Olympic stadium is named after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder and first president of the modern Turkish Republic, which turns 100 in October. The stadium was originally constructed as part of Istanbuls failed bid for the 2008 Olympics and has served as a venue for one Champions League final in the pastthe 2005 match between AC Milan and Liverpool.

This years final provided the newly reelected Erdogan with one of his first opportunities to face his European counterparts in government and civil society after liberally deploying anti-Western rhetoric throughout his presidential campaign. Prior to attending the final, Erdogan received both UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin and Gianni Infantinothe president of international soccer association FIFAat Ataturk Airport, where they held closed-door talks.

From the stadiums VIP box, flanked by United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan to his left and Ceferin to his right, Erdogans message was clear: He can play the geopolitical game his way and win. Turkey remains a transcontinental countrygeographically, politically, and culturally. But while Erdogans regime has symbolically cleaved Turkey and Europe, there is no separating them. Just look at the Turkish leader, hosting the biggest night in European club soccer.

For Turkey, there was a lot riding on this final. Considering the fact that [Erdogan] has been facing an economic crisis for the last few years, I think its very important for him to give the image of exuberance, of growth, of success, said Berk Esen, an assistant professor of political science at Istanbuls Sabanci University. Football is probably the most convenient venue for him to do that. After all, Esen added, Were a football-loving nation.

After World War II, Turkey began prioritizing friendly matches with European national teams to build closer relations to the West. Encounters with European teams became a reflection of the national psyche, raising issues of competition, nationalism and respect, researchers Ozgehan Senyuva and Sevecen Tunc wrote in their article Turkey and the Europe of football, published in a Sport in History journal issue titled The Origins and Birth of lEurope du football.

Because of Turkeys desire to align itself with the West, its bid for membership to UEFA in 1955 was a foreign-policy priority. The overture was warmly welcomed by UEFAs executive committee, and it helped that the country had recently formed political, economic, and military alliances with Greece and Yugoslavia. But FIFA, soccers international governing body, opposed on the grounds that Turkey belonged de facto and de jure to Asia: Its capital, Ankara, is based on the Asian side of the country. (Istanbul, Turkeys largest city, straddles Europe and Asia.)

The Turkish Football Federation is currently pursuing the countrys sixth consecutive bid to host the UEFA European Football Championship, or Euro, in 2028 or 2032. (Unlike the Champions League, the Euro is a tournament of nationalrather than clubteams.) In 2018, Turkey lost its bid to host the Euro 2024 tournament to Germany, with UEFAs executive committee citing lack of an action plan in the area of human rights in its evaluation of Istanbuls bid. It was the first time such a criterion had ever been applied.

For Ankara, all the above are familiar refrains from European institutions. Turkey has been campaigning for European Union membership for the past 36 years and counting, and its bids have been habitually blocked by other member states, which often cite their concern for human rights in the country.

Turkeyshuman rights recordhas deteriorated considerablyunder Erdogan, particularlyover the past decade,creating an openly hostile environment for independent media, human rights defenders, the LGBTQ+ community, Kurdish political activists, and government critics. But, as Philip Balboni recentlywroteinForeign Policy,many of the EUs espoused concerns precede that backslideandsimilar issues did not stop a number of Central and Eastern European states such as the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia from obtaining EU status while Turkeys petitions were repeatedly deferred.

This rhetoric of Erdogan taking Turkey away from Europe is missing one dimension: Its not like Europe was waiting with open arms and trying to pull Turkey towards them, Senyuva told Foreign Policy. Europe will continue bashing Turkey and putting all the blame on [Erdogan] so they dont have to discuss all the shortcomings on the European side, or the rise of the populist right wing in Europe and their anti-Turkish, xenophobic, and racist rhetoric. Indeed, even when Turkey underwent considerable political and economic reforms, some European politicians still openly leaned into the argument of civilizational difference to justify leaving Turkey waiting at Europes doorstep.

In 2010, Turkey lost its bid to host Euro 2016 to France by a single votewith Turkeys place in Europe a key factor, the Associated Press reported. Frances then-President Nicolas Sarkozy, who had campaigned on his opposition to Turkey joining the EU (arguing it was not geographically a part of Europe), was in attendance at UEFAs headquarters in Geneva to receive Frances win.

Though EU-Turkey accession negotiations officially froze in 2019, Ankaras UEFA bids have not relented. Soccer is not an unfamiliar tool for Erdogan, who has linked the sport to politics since his own days as a soccer player in the 1970s and 80s, when he was active in youth politics while playing semi-professionally at clubs Erokspor, Camialti, and IETT Spor. (He won five titles as the captain of the latter.) As prime minister and now president, he has invested incredible resources into stadium construction in recent years. Recep Tayyip Erdogan Stadium opened in Istanbul in 2005.

While Erdogans confrontations with Europe may be read as intended to move the country further away from the Westand more freely toward authoritarian populismhe is unlikely to sever ties anytime soon, Esen told Foreign Policy. Erdogan is really trying to carve out an autonomous space for himself in the international arena, Esen said. Sometimes that requires challenging the West directly; on other occasions, it requires stuff like this.

Stuff, such as hosting his political peers to softly reenforceas Erdogan put itthe inseparability of Turkey as a part of Europe, albeit on its own terms.

In conversations with Foreign Policy, Turkish soccer fans across Istanbul on the weekend of the final said they saw the sport as Turkeys irrefutable link to Europe. When asked whether he saw Turkey as a part of the continent, Eren Ozdemir, a supporter of Istanbul club Galatasaray, replied without hesitation: Yes.

Its a great tournament, known all over the world, he said. The whole world can see us hosting this great organization [and] promoting Turkey. He saw nothing out of place with Turkey hosting the Champions League final.

Even though Ozdemirs club wasnt in this years final, he was still invested in the tournament for other reasons: Galatasaray recently won the Turkish Super League, securing its place in the qualifying rounds of next seasons Champions League. In Istanbuls city center, flush with banners welcoming Manchester City and Inter Milan, red and yellow Galatasaray flags were just as ubiquitous. The melding of champions appeared seamless, and the association purposeful.

The proximity to prestige is the point: There is no arena more prestigious than European soccer. The next three teams in the Turkish Super League have also qualified to play in UEFA cups in the coming months.

As Turkey enters its centennial year, Erdogan has a reliable outlet to kindle nationalism in his deeply polarized country. In Turkey, love for football is cross-cutting, said Esen, who is also a Galatasaray fan. Its probably one of the few unifying themes.

Whether Turkeys soccer clubsand national teamcan start winning on the world stage is another question. According to Yusuf Atalay, an event volunteer working at one of the concession stands in the stadium on the night of the final, the answer is no. Turkish teams almost cant dream about the Champions League final, he said. In order to make it to the final, you have to have a good economy.

Atalay responded affirmatively, if hesitantly, when asked whether Turkey was still a part of Europe. At the very least, it is when it comes to the beautiful game.

Continued here:
For Turkey's Erdogan, Soccer Is a Hobbyand Geopolitical Tool - Foreign Policy

Explainer

07:00

by Maximilian Hess

The autocrats trade notes. Credit: Getty

The aborted Prigozhin Putsch has rocked Russia, though it was called off before an alleged 25,000 soldiers from the Wagner Group could complete their march on Moscow. What this portends for Russias future or even that of its immediate protagonists remains unclear. Never before has Winston Churchills quote Kremlin political intrigues are comparable to a bulldog fight under a rug. An outsider only hears the growling, and when he sees the bones fly out from beneath it is obvious who won appeared so prescient.

The crisis was without precedent in Vladimir Putins rule. But a comparison can be found in the 2016 coup attempt against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. That attempt similarly saw the rapid launch of fighting in urban areas and a battle for control of key cities. Yet Putin and Erdogans responses were remarkably different. The latter rapidly released a video calling for Turks to oppose the coup and the security forces that remained loyal to him refused to stand-down. At least 265 people were killed.

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Erdogan showed that he was willing to fight to retain a monopoly on the use of force, and rapidly named his alleged opponents. Putin did not even mention Prigozhin in his belated response on the morning of 24th June. On the other hand, Erdogan made clear that he saw the movement led by US-based cleric Fethullah Glen as responsible for the coup against him, even though Glen had once been his close ally just as Prigozhin had been Putins.

Erdogan used it to justify a major crackdown and to further erode Turkeys democratic norms, helping him retain power to the present day. Putin long ago eliminated or jailed Russias democratic opposition, and what remained has largely fled abroad over the last year, but his meek initial response bodes poorly for the system that he has established. Prigozhin has proven that the Kremlin can be put under threat and that Putins promise of stability and prosperity for Russia after the tumult of the 1990s is rapidly evaporating.

Prigozhins threatened march prompted a level of panic amongst Muscovites and St. Petersburgers that the war against Ukraine had failed to cause: despite its wider horrors, they have thus far been immune to its impacts other than a handful of largely symbolic drone attacks. Most remarkable is that their fears were not eliminated by decisive action from Putin himself or the Russian security services with which he is so closely associated, but instead ostensibly by mediation from Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Why Prigozhin agreed to stand down remains unknown. He had, after all, been increasingly brazen in his challenges to Putins authority. On 23rd June the Wagner chief dismissed Russias casus belli for the full-scale of invasion of Ukraine and even acknowledged that the Kremlins allegations that enemy forces threatened genocide against Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine were factually incorrect and poor propaganda. Though he said the war remained worth fighting, he alleged it was engineered by the Minister of Defence, Sergei Shoigu, as well as the siloviki oligarchs who wanted to pillage Ukraines national wealth as they had in occupied Donetsk and Luhansk since 2014.

Prigozhin is ostensibly bound for Belarus itself though Minsk has its own history of bad blood with Prigozhins forces. The Wagner boss was filmed smiling and in a celebratory mood as he left Rostov. His press service has announced that he will have more to say in due course. But Putins meek response has shattered his image of strength in Russia, just as his failing invasion of Ukraine has shattered his image of strength abroad.

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Will Putin borrow from the Erdogan playbook? - UnHerd

Turkish women continued their sit-in protest against the PKK terrorist organization in the country's southeast, hoping to reunite with their children on Eid al-Adha, one of the two major festivals celebrated by Muslims worldwide.

They say their children were kidnapped or forcibly recruited by the PKK terrorist organization.

The protest outside the HDP headquarters in Diyarbakir province has entered its day 1,394, with more people joining in daily.

Bedriye Uslu told Anadolu that she is protesting in front of the HDP building for the return of his son Mahmut, who was kidnapped "26 Eid ago."

My son is 30 years old now; if he were here, he would have a home, get married, and have children. I hope our efforts will not be in vain, and one day our children will come. We will reunite with our children and spend the holidays with them," she said in an optimistic tone, hoping to see Mahmud soon.

Another protester, Guzide Demir, said his son, Aziz, was kidnapped "18 Eid ago."

"We have no peace left at home ... We want our children from the HDP. It's been 18 Eid, I'm separated from my child My son was an orphan, and I was both a mother and a father to him. I won't leave here without my child, she insisted.

Nihat Aydin, a father, said his son was kidnapped when he was 13 years old.

They took these children to the mountain and left them to die in caves. As with every holiday, we will wait for the path of our children on this Eid.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Trkiye, the PKK listed as a terrorist organization by Trkiye, the US, and EU has been responsible for the deaths of some 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. The YPG is the terror group's Syrian branch.

Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice, will be celebrated by Muslims in Trkiye and around the globe on Wednesday, as well as on Thursday in some countries.

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Erdogan look to reunite their children kidnapped by PKK terror ... - Yeni afak English

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has invited Dr Mahathir Mohamad to attend a follow-up event to the Kuala Lumpur Summit held in 2019, in what is seen as the Turkish leader's continued support for the former prime minister's proposal for a new Muslim power bloc.

Following an hour-long meeting in Ankara on Tuesday where Mahathir and wife Dr Siti Hasmah Ali were welcomed at the presidential palace, he said Erdogan was keen to organise the Istanbul Summit to pursue what was discussed during the KL Summit, where top leaders of Malaysia and Turkey, as well as Qatar and Iran, had agreed to cooperate.

"There were also a lot of discussions on the fate of the Muslim ummah and the need to help Muslims and their nations which are facing hardship and wars.

"Mahathir also acknowledged, given Turkiyes rapid development and progress in various fields, that it can be the model nation for other Muslim countries," said a statement on Mahathir's Facebook.

It said both leaders agreed that the Istanbul Summit would be held in either September or October this year, adding that Erdogan would like Mahathir's team to partner his Turkish side for the event.

In 2019, Erdogan alongside Iranian president Hassan Rouhani and Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim Hamad Al Thani attended the KL Summit, which has been renamed as the Perdana Dialogue, a forum that organisers say complements the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in addressing issues affecting the Muslim world.

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Erdogan invites Mahathir to join hands for Islamic summit in Turkey - MalaysiaNow

As after almost every failure, the opposition parties in Turkiye have already started to blame each other for the defeat they suffered during last months general elections. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of a coalition of opposition parties, has said it is my duty to lead the ship to a safe harbor, but he did not say why he could not do this in the last elections. In fact, he has lost all 10 elections that he has participated in. Political analysts underline that, in a country where democracy is properly digested, political leaders should step aside if they fail in one or two successive elections. Despite this and despite pressure coming from his partys hierarchy, Kilicdaroglu seems to be intent on continuing his fight. In the first round of the presidential election on May 14, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was the leading candidate, but by less than half a percent of the votes. In the second round, Erdogan, of the ruling Justice and Development Party, obtained 52.14 percent of the votes versus opposition leader Kilicdaroglus 47.86. For now, there are three candidates for the chairmanship of the main opposition party, the Republican Peoples Party, which is known as the CHP. One is Kilicdaroglu. The second is Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul, who won this position by digging the ground with his fingers. The third is Ozgur Ozel, a young and ambitious member of the party. He has publicly announced that he would not avoid taking on responsibility, adding that he would not hold back from sacrifice either, which means that he will run for the presidency only if Kilicdaroglu supports him. There is a feeling in Turkiyes opposition party circles that a sea change has become necessary. So far, only Imamoglu has come up with a structured report and underlined the specific areas where the coalition of opposition parties failed. This report highlighted many failures. Firstly, it stated that the main opposition CHP and its allies could not turn the last election into a referendum for or against Erdogan. Secondly, Erdogan transformed the elections into a choice of whether the electorate should vote for stability or chaos and the opposition parties watched this from a distance as bystanders. Thirdly, the campaign became an effort to make Kilicdaroglu a candidate for the presidential post, rather than winning the elections. Finally, the opposition parties could not explain to the electorate that continuing with Erdogan would mean the further impoverishment of the Turkish people. On Wednesday last week, Kilicdaroglu and Imamoglu held a two-hour meeting on the outskirts of Ankara. People close to Imamoglu emphasized that radical changes are necessary in the party, while Kilicdaroglu thought that the election of a new chairman had to be postponed until after the local elections that will be held next year. This means Kilicdaroglu is not prepared to leave the leadership of the party until after then at least. The other participants commented that a positive atmosphere dominated the meeting.

Despite pressure coming from his partys hierarchy, Kilicdaroglu seems to be intent on continuing his fight.

Yasar Yakis

There are two opportunities that the willing members of the CHP would like to use to take command of the party. One of them is the partys general congress. The regular biennial general congress of the CHP was due to be held last year, but it was postponed to this year. The preparatory meetings have to be held at the village or neighborhood level, to be followed by the district and then provincial levels. The second is the local elections. This requires at least three months to organize. The municipal elections are expected to be held on March 31, 2024, if there is no decision made to change the date. Therefore, the parties will have to hold their intra-party elections months before so that the new administrations can launch their campaigns. Opinions are divided as to whether the general congress of the CHP should be held before or after the local elections. If it is held beforehand, Kilicdaroglu may not be reelected, meaning his dream to lead the ship to a safe harbor may not materialize. Kilicdaroglu is on the record as saying that he is not opposed to the candidacy of any member of the party, but that the wrong choice should not allow the CHP to lose a major metropolis like Istanbul. The most important thing is to avoid a fight within the party, because such a division may cause a split. Ozel, the chairman of the CHPs parliamentary group, clarified his position by emphasizing that he would definitely support any candidate who is designated by Kilicdaroglu. Kilicdaroglu would not want to take a decision that might harm the political party he has been leading for 13 years. However, human beings have their choices. In a democratic environment, people also make mistakes. Therefore, the right way will again be found by intensifying the dialogue. Another major factor that has to be taken into account is the case of Meral Akseners IYI Parti. In last months parliamentary elections, this party obtained 9.69 percent of the votes and 44 seats in the parliament. The party made a mistake by withdrawing for three days from the six-party opposition coalition. This unwise move caused unease within the party and must have produced a substantive loss of support among the electorate. Erdogan has repeatedly said that, in Turkish elections, the one who gets Istanbul will also get Turkiye. We may presume that he will do everything he can to ensure he does not lose Istanbul in next years local elections.

Yasar Yakis is a former foreign minister of Turkiye and founding member of the ruling AK Party. Twitter: @yakis_yasar

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News' point of view

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Turkish opposition eyes local elections after loss to Erdogan - Arab News