German Kurdish Footballer Deniz Undav Targeted with Racist Abuse in Istanbul

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – German national footballer Deniz Undav, who has Kurdish-Yazidi roots, was subjected to racist insults and abuse during VfB Stuttgart’s Europa League match against Fenerbahçe in Istanbul on Thursday evening, in an incident that has reignited debate about anti-Kurdish racism in Turkish sports and society.

According to multiple eyewitnesses and widely circulated videos on social media, sections of the crowd at Fenerbahçe’s Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium hurled racist and personal insults at Undav throughout the match, which ended 1–0 in favor of the Turkish side. Some fans were heard chanting obscenities about the striker’s family, while others reportedly used slurs such as “traitor” and “terrorist.”

The incident followed a brief on-field confrontation between Undav and Fenerbahçe midfielder İsmail Yüksek, after which parts of the stadium audience began targeting the Stuttgart striker.

This is not the first time Undav has faced hostility. For months, the player has been the target of online abuse after publicly identifying as Kurdish and rejecting being labeled as a “Turkish footballer.” In a 2023 interview, he explained his decision to play for Germany rather than Türkiye, saying, “I knew that after two or three bad games for Türkiye, I would have been insulted completely.”

Since then, social media platforms have been flooded with hate speech against him, including comments calling him a “traitor,” a “terrorist,” and a “nationless dog.” Posts featuring the wolf emoji—a symbol associated with Türkiye’s ultranationalist Grey Wolves movement—have frequently appeared under his name.

The anti-Kurdish racism monitoring group Informationsstelle Antikurdischer Rassismus condemned the latest incident, urging football authorities and clubs to take a clear stance against all forms of discrimination.

For many Kurds in Türkiye, everyday discrimination is a familiar reality, and football stadiums have often reflected those tensions. Clubs from predominantly Kurdish regions—most notably Amed SK from Diyarbakır—have repeatedly been targeted by nationalist chants, hostile banners, and even sanctions from football authorities.

Observers warn that such incidents go beyond sport, revealing entrenched ethnic divisions and intolerance that persist within Turkish society. “When a player like Deniz Undav is attacked simply for embracing his Kurdish identity, it shows that football remains a mirror of the country’s unresolved ethnic tensions,” one analyst told Kurdistan24.

The abuse directed at Undav has been widely condemned across European football circles, with calls growing for UEFA and national associations to take concrete measures to ensure player safety and accountability for racist behavior inside stadiums.