Kurdish team shakes Turkish Cup tournament

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (K24) - Amedspor SK, a football team from the de facto Kurdish capital of Diyarbakir, reached the quarter-finals of the Turkish Cup tournament in a much-politicized 2-1 victory over former Super Lig champions Bursaspor.

The match was played at the newly-inaugurated "Crocodile Arena" stadium in the northwestern city of Bursa.

Amedspor's midfielder Ercan Capar rifled in the first goal of the match from 18-yards after 20 minutes.

As the game went on, Bursaspor fans waved huge Turkish flags and chanted nationalistic slogans such as "martyrs don't die, the homeland cannot be divided" against the visitors. Amedspor is usually associated with Kurdish separatism in the media and sports spheres in Turkey.

Amedspor fans were banned from the game in accordance with a decision given by the local governorate.

German-Kurdish forward Deniz Naki scored Amedspor's second goal in the 65 minute, hitting a shot hard and low past the helpless goalkeeper.

Amedspor's green, red and yellow club colors represent the flag of Kurdistan used by many Kurdish political parties and armed movements across Greater Kurdistan.

Belgian striker Tom De Sutter scored Bursaspor's only goal in the fourth minute of stoppage time, moments before the referee blew for the end of the match.

After the game, goalscorer Naki wrote on his Facebook page that he dedicated the victory to those killed and wounded "under the oppression that has gone on for 50 days in our lands."

Naki, hailing from the Alevi-majority Kurdish province of Dersim, was referring to Turkish military operations against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) affiliates in numerous residential areas, including the central Sur district of Diyarbakir.

"We are happy and proud to have given our people a little light of hope in such a difficult time, Amedspor never bows," continued Naki, adding the Kurdish phrase "Her bijî Azadî," meaning "long live freedom."

Naki formerly played for Gençlerbirligi from the city of Ankara. In late 2014 he quit the team after a group of men shouted racist abuse and challenged him over his support for the Syrian-Kurdish town of Kobani. At the time, Kurdish forces were battling a siege by the Islamic State (IS) group.

Clashes broke out between celebratory Amedspor fans and the Turkish police in central Diyarbakir in the aftermath of the match, as police detained dozens.

The clashes continued on social media where fans of both teams directed slurs and insults at each other. Some media outlets falsely reported Amedspor's Twitter account of posting tweets in support of the PKK fighters battling the Turkish Army in Sur and the town of Cizre.

Yasar Abdulselamoglu, a sociologist at the Sofia University in Bulgaria, tweeted [in Turkish], "As Amedspor plays like Barcelona, Kurdistan will gain momentum like Catalonia," drawing parallels between the Kurdistan of Turkey and the secessionist Catalan Autonomous Region in northeastern Spain.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany
(Hesen Kako contributed to this story in Diyarbakir)