Tag: Turkey

Football, Turkey

Sportif Lezbon: Turkey’s first LGBT football team

ANKARA – “Football is the world’s most popular sport,” says 25-year-old Selin Yildiz. “And it’s also a kind of bastion of masculinity; when you say ‘football,’ people think of men. So we want to turn it inside out – not only to challenge sexism and homophobia and transphobia, but also to oppose other harmful political ideologies.” Selin is the star-player and co-founder of Sportif Lezbon, who claim … Continue reading Sportif Lezbon: Turkey’s first LGBT football team

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Football

Dinamo Mesken: Turkish Football as a Political Football

IN “DINAMO MESKEN,” a multimedia exhibition at Ankara’s SALT Ulus gallery, Turkish artist Ege Berensel tells the story of an amateur football club dragged into Turkey’s political turmoil of the late 1970s. Armed groups of the left and right fought and killed one another. The escalating conflict brought military repression and a traumatic denouement. Berensel’s research, carried out over more than five years and displayed … Continue reading Dinamo Mesken: Turkish Football as a Political Football

Unknown's avatarPatrick KeddieLeave a comment
Football

Could Turkish football collapse?

ISTANBUL – Five minutes before kick-off, Deniz Dogruer was nervous. Her beloved Galatasaray – one of Turkey’s most successful football teams – was about to take on Caykur Rizespor in the Turkish Super Lig. Despite their opponents’ low ranking, Galatasaray were beset by injuries and Dogruer anticipated a tough contest. But her nerves were misplaced – within seven minutes, Galatasaray’s star player Wesley Sneijder had … Continue reading Could Turkish football collapse?

Unknown's avatarPatrick KeddieLeave a comment