On 2013-06-04, at 1:02 PM, Wojtek S wrote:
> I have been following the events in Turkiye on Al Jazeera, and there seem
> to be two camps of though about what is going on there. On the one hand
> there are those who support Erdogan's line that this is the opposition and
> foreign meddling - a "color revolution' orchestrated overseas if you will,
> and the other camp that this is a genuine mass protest against Erdogan's
> hard line.
>
> […]
>
> I am more inclined to believe that Erdogan is pulling a Zia ul Haq
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Zia-ul-Haq who established islamic
> law in Pakistan to undermine opposition aligned with Ali Bhutto with
> support of the Reagan administration. Does anyone have good information on
> what is going there?
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I can't vouch for this report because I'm not well informed about Turkish politics or the protest movement, but it seems authoritative and claims that leftist young soccer club fans have been at the centre of the demonstrations: "The football fanatics, that is, the ultras we had regarded as apolitical, played a major role as they taught the masses how to face up to the pepper gas." Fehim Tastekin is a columnist for Radikal, described as a left-liberal daily once edited by, among others, Orhan Pamuk, and published by the Dogan Media Group (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radikal).
Ultras: The Surprise Kids Of Turkey’s Uprising June 4 2013
[…]
Socialist spirit resurfaces from the depths
But who are the ultras? What was it that drew fanatics, perceived as apolitical, right into the eye of a political brawl? According to Ozdal, the prevailing profile among the ultras is represented by “political adolescents, that is, people hailing from leftist-socialist tradition who have lost touch with their political organizations but have not ceased to be political.”
The Besiktas neighborhood, a scene of violent resistance against police, is the main breeding ground of the Carsi Group, the ultras of the Besiktas club. Even though Carsi brings together fans from all social segments, it could be described as a coalition of former members of social-democrat, leftist and communist groups whose ideological backgrounds have faded as they lost their organizational links.
The Carsi label has come to be used across Turkey, but the dominant body in Besiktas’ spectator stands is left-leaning. That’s why they have been influential in various civic events, including demonstrations against the planned nuclear power plants. In the Carsi Group, you might equallyy come across former members of the defunct [far-left] Dev-Sol and Kemalists supporting the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). Carsi is one of the reasons why the Gezi resistance concentrated in Besiktas. The other is that the neighborhood is a CHP stronghold. The common trait of Carsi members is that they are all “worried seculars” opposed to the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Besiktas is a meeting point, a sort of a third path, for vibrant and restless youngsters looking for an alternative other than Galatasaray and Fenerbahce. The fact that Besiktas is a club of more modest means compared to Galatasaray and Fenerbahce appeals to left-leaning youth.
Fenerbahce’s two currents
Fenerbahce’s ultras, known traditionally as “statist,” are fractured. The “Young Fenerbahce” group comprises youngsters of rightist and conservative background. When the match-fixing scandal broke two years ago, they took a stance against Fenerbahce President Aziz Yildirim and looked to Erdogan for help. Their pro-government attitude kept them away from the Gezi Park revolt.
It was Fenerbahce’s Outside Left group that joined the revolt. All members of the faction, which is only two-three years old, are former Marxists. During the match-fixing trial, they won respect by mobilizing Fenerbahce fans, using their leftist experience. They have been also at the forefront in various civic actions.
Fenerbahce’s third supporter group, Vamos Bien, is a coalition of leftists and social democrats, among them CHP voters. They saw the match-fixing case as a plot against Fenerbahce and remained loyal to Aziz Yildirim. The fury over the case spurred individual, if not institutional, participation in the latest unrest.
UltrAslan’s shift from left to right
Galatasaray’s UltrAslan group, which also joined the revolt, was formed by middle-class left wingers after the club’s victory in the 2001 UEFA Cup, but was quickly taken over by nationalists and conservatives. Youngsters linked to the [nationalist] Hearths of Ideals and the [Islamist] National Youth Foundation joined hands in defacing the left. Soon afterwards, former leftists set up One Fist, a sort of an underground formation which managed to politicize the stands and overshadow UltrAslan. The group first won kudos in 2006 when Israel entered Lebanon, unfurling a banner that read “Ali Sami Yen [stadium] is a hell, Palestine is a paradise.”
It was the same group that booed Erdogan on Jan. 15, 2011 at the inauguration of Galatasaray’s new stadium. UltrAslan initially protested the protesters, but stepped back in the face of a backlash and abandoned its pro-government attitude to adopt an apolitical stance. Yet, it joined the latest anti-AKP revolt, swayed by its secularist-nationalist elements.
The Arab uprising undid many clichés. In Turkey, a country unaccustomed to revolt, the Gezi Park unrest undid even more. The Arab Spring destroyed the walls of fear. In Turkey, the “demonstration phobia” collapsed. The football fanatics, that is, the ultras we had regarded as apolitical, played a major role as they taught the masses how to face up to the pepper gas.
(Fehim Taştekin is a columnist and chief editor of foreign news at the Turkish newspaper Radikal, based in Istanbul. He is the host of a fortnightly program called "Doğu Divanı" on IMC TV. He is an analyst specializing in Turkish foreign policy and Caucasus, Middle East and EU affairs.)