MHP's Bahçeli hails racist attacks on Amedspor football team

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Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chair Devlet Bahçeli has praised the racist attacks on Amedspor football team over the weekend.

"I greet Bursaspor fans and congratulate them for their national stance," Bahçeli told his party's parliamentary group today (March 7).

"The separatists provoking the stadium is a murder, a disgrace. My brothers and sisters from Kurdish origin are different, the separatist terrorists are different," he remarked.

During the Second League game, fans of Bursaspor, the home team, displayed banners evoking the memories of enforced disappearances in the country's Kurdish-majority regions in the 1990s.

Also, the fans threw objects such as plastic bottles and firecrackers onto the pitch throughout the match.

"No such place as Amed"

Bahçeli also refused to use the name "Amedspor," which originates from Amed, the Kurdish name of the city and used Diyarbakır instead.

"For us, there is no such place called Amed. So, an 'Amedspor' cannot be talked about," he remarked.

Bahçeli had also used strong words against two İstanbul-based teams, Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş, because of their fans' protests against the government during last week's games.

He had called for matches without fans if the clubs failed to prevent such protests. Fenerbahçe fans had been banned from entering the stadium in their next game in Kayseri. (ME/VK)