Amedspor: A Contested Field for Kurdish Identity and Peacebuilding

Introduction

Amedspor, a football club based in the northern Kurdistan’s Amed (Diyarbakır in Turkish), has emerged as a powerful symbol of Kurdish national identity[i] and struggle against racism. As one of the most prominent Kurdish teams in the Turkish football league, Amedspor's journey has been marked by a constant struggle against racism embedded within the Turkish football system[ii]. Beyond its role as a sports club, Amedspor has become a venue for the representation and expression of belonging to Kurdish nation, serving as a platform for the community to assert its cultural identity and political demands. However, the club's impact has been limited by the broader political context and the repression faced by the team and its supporters[iii]. While we see very recently some positive comments by non-Kurds regarding Amedspor's success[iv] and its potential contribution to the rights and representation of Kurds in Turkey, a critical analysis is necessary to understand the underlying complexities and the challenges that persist. This brief examines the multifaceted role of Amedspor, exploring its significance as a symbol of Kurdish identity and its potential as a peacebuilding platform, while also acknowledging the limitations and risks posed by the club's contested position within the Turkish political landscape.

Representation and Identity

Amedspor's very name, "Amed," which is the historical name deriving from Amida[v], is a powerful statement of the club's commitment to representing and celebrating the Kurdish identity. The team started using this name in 2014, right before the negotiations for the resolution of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict failed. Given the relatively more positive political atmosphere at that time, the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) accepted the club’s demand for the name change but on the condition that they replace yellow in their emblem[vi]. The TFF apparently had a problem with the combination of green, red, and yellow as these represent Kurdish flag. Making the “smart” choice, the club kept the name and replaced yellow with white along with green and red colors of the team because the name “Amed”, despite being targeted or denied by some far-right racist politicians[vii], army officers[viii], and commentators[ix], entered the Turkish political landscape and football sector as an official name. Therefore, this deliberate choice to embrace the Kurdish language and cultural heritage has made Amedspor a platform for the expression of Kurdish identity and contribution to aspirations for recognition.

Despite the TFF’s explicit policy of denying the right to self-representation of Amedspor with its preferred colors, the club's supporters did not hesitate to use the football pitch as a stage to display Kurdish flags[x], chant slogans in the Kurdish language, and engage in other forms of cultural expression[xi] that assert their distinct identity. This has, in turn, drawn the ire of Turkish nationalist groups and authorities, who have sought to suppress and erase such displays of Kurdish cultural and political identity. As an outcome of this suppressive policy, Amedspor received the highest number of fines by the TFF on the ground that its fans chanted “ideological slogans” and carried “ideological banners”[xii] (e.g., “Children[xiii] should not die. They should come to the match”[xiv]).

Therefore, the club's symbolic significance in the broader Kurdish struggle for recognition and autonomy within Turkey has made it a target of systematic discrimination, physical violence, and cultural attacks by rival teams, their supporters, and the Turkish state apparatus[xv]. This ongoing struggle for the right to express Kurdish identity on the football pitch reflects the larger political and social tensions that have characterized the Turkish-Kurdish conflict. Amedspor, therefore, has inevitably become a component of this prolonged conflict despite its Kurdish and Turkish players insisted in an interview[xvi] that their motivation is to focus on games rather than the negative perceptions other have of them. The racism against Amedspor is so blatant and indiscriminate that even though the majority of its players are non-Kurdish, the perpetrators of violence and racism fail to recognize the diversity in Amedspor. By joining Amedspor, these Turkish players are basically out of the “Turkishness Contract”[xvii] now and seen as legitimate targets of violence motivated by demonization of Kurds and colonial violence within and beyond northern Kurdistan.

Sports and Peacebuilding

The potential of sports to serve as a platform for promoting peace, reconciliation, and cross-cultural understanding has been a subject of growing academic and policy interest[xviii]. Sports initiatives in conflict-affected regions are often designed to bring together divided communities, foster communal dialogue, and build bridges across ethnic, religious, or political lines[xix]. Examples of such efforts include cases of Western Balkans and South Caucasia, where we see football used as a tool for promoting coexistence and mutual understanding in post-conflict societies[xx]. In Northern Ireland, the "Milk Cup" youth football tournament has been credited with helping to reduce sectarian tensions and promote a shared sense of identity among Catholic and Protestant communities[xxi]. However, the "sports for peace" approach has also faced criticism for its limitations and potential risks. Scholars have argued that sports can also serve to reinforce existing power structures, exacerbate tensions, and perpetuate the marginalization of certain groups[xxii]. One of the underlying factors for this outcome is that football is an invasion game based upon the principles of attack and defense, in which we often observe that key warfare concepts are played out and reinforced rather than mitigated[xxiii]. Therefore, the success of such initiatives often depends on the broader political and social context, as well as the specific design and implementation of the sports programs.

Racism and unequal power dynamics are also in play in football, particularly targeting immigrant[xxiv] and minoritized/aboriginal[xxv] communities. In England, Black national team players have faced racist abuse from fans[xxvi]. In Italy, teams like Lazio and Roma have grappled with racism and far-right extremism within their fan bases, targeting players of African descent[xxvii]. In Australia, the experiences of Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander players have revealed systemic barriers to their full inclusion and representation in football[xxviii].

We come across such limitations and risks in the case of Amedspor, too. Although some researchers[xxix], politicians[xxx], and commentators[xxxi] argue that Amedspor has the potential to contribute to the resolution of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict, I believe this potential is both compelling and complex. The club's representation of Kurdish identity and its symbolic significance in the broader struggle for Kurdish rights and autonomy could, in theory, provide a space for cross-cultural dialogue, mutual understanding, and the promotion of peaceful coexistence.

As a team that brings together Kurdish fans and Kurdish and Turkish players across northern Kurdistan, Turkey, and diaspora, Amedspor could serve as a bridge between the Kurdish and Turkish communities, promoting greater interaction, empathy, and a shared appreciation for the sport. The club's success and recognition within the Turkish football landscape could also help challenge stereotypes and reduce exclusion of Kurdish teams in the Turkish leagues. However, the repressive political environment and the government institutions’ treatment of Amedspor have posed significant challenges[xxxii] to the club's potential as a peacebuilding platform. The systematic discrimination and physical and symbolic violence[xxxiii] faced by the team and its supporters have reinforced the perception of Kurds as a threat to the Turkish nationalist project, further entrenching the divisions and mistrust between the two communities[xxxiv]. Further, under the existing unequal circumstances and due to power imbalances, the chance of Amedspor being a ‘peace actor’ is not a possibility as neither the club nor its supporters are publicly recognized as legitimate actors who have rights and agency. Therefore, Amedspor’s motivation to demand peaceful relations with other clubs and the Turkish football authorities is not fully perceived yet. This remains as one of the major challenges, limiting Amedspor to play a key role.

Moreover, the club's ideological stance, Kurdish identity, and perceived links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), one of the key armed Kurdish groups engaged in a prolonged conflict with the Turkish state, have been used to legitimize the state's crackdown on and racist attacks in the field against Amedspor, its players[xxxv] and supporters[xxxvi]. This association has heightened the risks of further polarization and conflict, as the team's very existence becomes a flashpoint in the broader struggle for Kurdish rights and autonomy. Therefore, despite the excitement over the championship of Amedspor and positive messages from some Turkish politicians, mayors, and club managers, we need to observe long-term changes. These include the discriminatory and unfair approach by the TFF and the Professional Football Discipline Committee (PFDK), the blatant racism by the right-wing parties, acceptance of Amedspor and its Kurdish identity by non-Kurdish clubs and their fans as well as the mainstream Turkish media, and an end to associate Amedspor with political violence. Turkish-Kurdish conflict is at least a 100-year-old and, it is not realistic to expect these changes to happen overnight. The legacy of colonial violence within and beyond northern Kurdistan is likely to sustain at different levels. Therefore, while Amedspor’s hope in contributing to communal peace should be understood and supported also by non-Kurds, the biggest contribution to this process would be perpetrators’ ending of structural, direct, and symbolic violence and racism against Amedspor.

Amedspor’s role in creating a new culture of sports

One of the strengths Amedspor has been the fact that it has been the most popular Kurdish team in North Kurdistan and Turkey, which allows the team to increasingly gain fans but also forces to them to adapt an inclusive, non-discriminatory, and welcoming approach. This is exemplified in the team’s policy of bringing more women and children to the stadiums, ensuring that its fans do not use a sexist language, and welcoming all opponent teams and their fans in Amed. This approach is widely implemented, except for the Amedspor fans’ attitudes towards Bursaspor. The Bursaspor team management, fans, and local officials have made the Amedspor team and management suffer the most in away matches through direct (e.g., physical attacks) and symbolic violence (e.g., banners of people who are responsible for mass killings of civilians in North Kurdistan)[xxxvii]. In response, Amedspor fans have resorted to violent means in the stadium to counter Bursaspor’s racism, contradicting the club’s non-violent principles. This suggests that while Amedspor may be striving for a more inclusive sports culture, the broader sociopolitical tensions and discrimination pose significant obstacles.

There are four main fan groups that claim to be following Amedspor’s inclusive and democratic approach, namely Azrailler[xxxviii] (the Angels of Death), Barikat[xxxix] (Barricade), Mor Barikat[xl] (Purple Barricade, all women fans), and Direniş[xli] (Resistance). Although they all identify themselves as anti-fascist fan groups, their posts in the social media (e.g., X, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube) are usually a response to Turkish fascism against Kurdish teams. I did not come across any statements by the team or these fan groups on the racism against other groups in Turkey, such as asylum seekers who are constantly being targeted by the wider Turkish and Kurdish community[xlii], racist politicians from far-right parties[xliii], and those who claim to be social democrats[xliv] in and outside of the parliament and fans in the stadiums[xlv].  This narrow focus on Kurdish-Turkish tensions, while understandable, may limit the transformative potential of Amedspor's inclusive vision.

Finally, the existing discourse within Amedspor's fan groups and social media accounts suggests that the club's efforts to create a truly inclusive and anti-fascist sports culture are still a work in progress. While a sexist[xlvi] and militarist[xlvii] discourse has been present in the Turkish football, Amedspor’s attempt to deviate from this understanding should be acknowledged[xlviii]. However, we still see some examples of military discourse in the social media accounts of Amedspor’s fan groups. For example, following the championship, Barikat shared a post on X depicting the Amedspor’s manager, Aziz Elaldı, calling him the ‘commander’[xlix]. The same group also called Oktay Aydın, the player who scored the only goal in the match against Somaspor (based in the city of Manisa), a ‘rocket launcher’[l]. Following the same match, Amedspor’s official X account posted the team’s picture and said ‘we believed, fought, and won’[li]. Although these are rare incidents and both the club managers and the fan groups tend to share posts more on how proud they are with their team and fans and their solidarity with other Kurdish teams, they show that there is more they can do for a truly inclusive, anti-militarist and anti-fascist football.

Conclusion

Amedspor's journey as a contested field for Kurdish identity and peacebuilding reflects the complex and multifaceted nature of the Kurdish-Turkish conflict. The club's symbolic significance as a platform for the expression of Kurdish nationalism and aspirations has made it a target of systematic discrimination, violence, and repression by the Turkish state and its football authorities. While the potential for sports to serve as a venue for cross-cultural dialogue, mutual understanding, and peacebuilding is well-established, the case of Amedspor highlights the limitations and risks of such an approach in the context of deeply entrenched political and social divisions. The repressive environment and the state's treatment of the club have undermined its ability to fulfill this positive role, further entrenching the perception of Kurds as a threat to the Turkish nationalist project. To leverage the positive potential of Amedspor and similar sports initiatives in conflict-affected regions, a more comprehensive and multidimensional approach is needed. This would involve addressing the broader political and human rights issues that underlie the conflict, while also designing sports-based programs that are sensitive to the local context and power dynamics. Only by addressing the root causes of the conflict and creating an environment conducive to genuine dialogue and reconciliation can sports truly serve as a platform for peacebuilding and the promotion of inclusive, diverse, and equitable societies. Further research and dialogue on the intersection of sports, identity, and peacebuilding in conflict-affected contexts are crucial to advancing our understanding of these complex issues and informing more effective and sustainable interventions. The case of Amedspor serves as a reminder of the challenges and opportunities that lie at the intersection of sports, politics, and the struggle for representation and rights.

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[xxx] Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi [People’s Republican Party] (2024). CHP Leader Özgür Özel spoke at the TBMM Group Meeting: They Think They Will Lose Power If People Enter Taksim. https://en.chp.org.tr/haberler/chp-leader-ozgur-ozel-spoke-at-the-tbmm-group-meeting-they-think-they-will-lose-power-if-people-enter-taksim
[xxxi] 6 PAS. (2024). Amedspor – Iğdırspor: Eski Futbolcu Bariş Karabıyık 6 PAS'ta [Amedspor vs Iğdırspor: Former Player Barış Karabıkıy at 6 PAS]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6U3ktpKnMM&ab_channel=Amed6Pas
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[xxxviii] https://twitter.com/azraillergrubu
[xxxix] https://twitter.com/amedsporbarikt
[xl] https://twitter.com/Morbarikat21
[xli] https://twitter.com/AmedSporDirenis
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[xliii] Duman, Y. (2023) ‘How have Syrians been instrumentalized in Turkey’s domestic politics and international relations?’, in Mascha, E., Voulvouli, A., Kaliakatsos, M., & Zachou, E. (Ed.). Annual series Greek Asylum Service miscellaneous writings. Athens: Eurobooks.
[xliv] Turkish Minute. (2024). Actions of some opposition mayors feared to fuel anti-refugee sentiment in Turkey. https://www.turkishminute.com/2024/04/22/action-of-some-opposition-mayor-feared-to-fuel-anti-refugee-sentiment-in-turkey/
[xlv] Cumhuriyet. (2016). Beşiktaş- Çaykur Rizespor maçına damgasını vuran 'mülteci istemiyoruz' sloganının perde arkası. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7kfwWABL_I&ab_channel=Cumhuriyet
[xlvi] Orta, L. (2020). Türkiye’de Futbolun Küfür Tarihi [History of Swearing in Football in Turkey]. Uluslararası Toplum Araştırmaları Dergisi-International Journal of Society Researches. DOI: 10.26466/opus.649831.
[xlvii] Kalaycı, H. (2021). A Not-So-Friendly Match Between ‘Old Turkey’ and ‘New Turkey’: Turkish Football and Stadiums as a Domain of Hegemonic Struggle. Asian Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, 15(4), 519–535. https://doi.org/10.1080/25765949.2021.2009196.
[xlviii] Bora, T. (2016). Şampiyon [Champion]. Birikim. https://birikimdergisi.com/haftalik/7698/sampiyon#.V0WEv5GLShf
[xlix] https://x.com/AmedsporHoligan/status/1787034128237437099
[l] https://x.com/amedsporbarikt/status/1784571990604468451
[li] https://x.com/amedskofficial/status/1784581693975748700