Turkiye said goodbye to the cup after the loss to the Netherlands. Our footballers tried their best but could only make it to the quarter-finals. I would like to thank the young people for their efforts and their heart.
Football is a sport, there are wins and losses. There is no point in attaching great importance to it. Furthermore, we need to ensure that corrupt rulers and dirty politicians do not use it or become a tool for their own survival.
Mayor of Bolu, Tanju Ozkan
Meri reveals the truth
Turkey’s most memorable moment in this cup match was undoubtedly the action of national football player Merih Demiral, who celebrated the victory by making the “wolf sign” with both hands after the match against Austria.
Thus, while Melikh sparked serious debate, she also exposed a dangerous process of polarization and fascistization in the country (although she may not have been aware of it).
In particular, the MHP, a group that defines itself as “idealist”, AKP leader Erdogan, and many other politicians from the far right to the center supported and accepted Meliha’s actions.
In fact, Tancu Ozkan, the racist mayor of the city of Bolu, known for his hostility towards refugees, went even further and announced in response to UEFA’s two-match ban of Merih Demiral that he would “erect a bronze statue of Merih in the city.”
Undoubtedly, another section of society criticised Melih’s actions, criticising football, especially international matches, for being used to fuel bad politics and polarisation through such dangerous violence.
UEFA handed the player a two-match suspension, but some countries made harsh public statements against Melli’s transfer. The ruling party opposed UEFA’s punishment, but the leader of the main opposition CHP party said the punishment was inappropriate and declared that they had chosen not to confront those who wear the sign as idealists and nationalists.
Is the wolf’s head merely a symbol, a tool to terrorize the masses?
Ali Duran Topuz wrote in an article published in Altü Gerçek: “It is true that the wolf is an animal that Turks accept as a symbol, but the ‘wolf head’ is a fabrication of a fascist mentality aimed at destroying those who do not swear allegiance to it. It has no history anyway. Unless it is a celebration following an attack, the move is not a ‘symbol’ but an act of aggression.”¹
The “wolf head” is therefore a sign used by fascist movements and paramilitary groups in the country to provoke, intimidate and manipulate the masses.
Anyone of a certain age in this country knows very well the meaning of this sign and the trauma it causes, because behind the murders of thousands of revolutionary youth, trade unionists, journalists and intellectuals before 1980 there were always fascist organisations and the hitmen they used, who used this sign as their trademark, and which are still present today.
Why would rapists, robbers, thieves, murderers and drug dealers use this sign?
Moreover, this sign was made by those who carried out these attacks after so many murders, rapes, drug, arms and human trafficking, organ trafficking, property destruction and small and large usurpations, and attacks against Alevis, Kurds, socialists and refugees in recent years. Couldn’t the killer of Ozgecan have also used this sign?
In short, this sign is a trademark of the fascist movement in Turkey, which the rulers have been reintroducing for some time now to manipulate and intimidate the masses in the current economic crisis environment that is out of control and intimidating to the masses. A very heavy price has been paid.
That is not a symbol of innocence!
It is a great omission to portray and justify these and similar signs as innocent or inconsequential, especially by some social democratic and nationalist left circles, by equating them with “Turkish ancestry, patriotism and nationalism”, since the signs are known to be widely used by some security forces (special operations).
What Melli has done (and probably others will continue to say similar things) is also a sign that racist and fascist veins still exist strongly in this country, especially among a mass of people who do not know the true insight of the fascist movement that adopted this policy. Signs.
Arguably, fascism cannot be reduced to a problem of “lack of intelligence” and lack of education, but we must not forget that fascist ideology and discourse are primarily adopted by uneducated, vagrant and oppressed individuals.
How can we prevent the escalation of fascism?
The rise of fascism in the country will continue unless serious measures are taken by left-wing, socialist, populist and libertarian opposition parties, as well as labor and professional organizations. The results of the local elections on March 31st make it hard to imagine anyone (especially CHP officials) taking for granted that general elections will be held in 2028.
In fact, the rise of the racist fascist Victory Party, a party formed by anti-asylum seekers and anti-refugees, derived from the same tradition and founded by believers in the wolf’s head mantle, means that the rest of the party as a whole on the right will almost certainly move in a far-right direction.
Fascism will be defeated through struggle!
But you can’t defeat fascism just by talking about it, because the commitment to fascist ideology is generated not only by myths of the “strong nation/strong nation/strong leader” and the “alienated enemy/traitor/refugee”, but also by a political rhetoric consisting of calls to unite around so-called traditional values and signs such as the wolf’s head.
Essentially, fascism is defeated by fighting something ideologically different from it, i.e., by eliminating the causes of the “alienation” within society that many people currently feel in some way. Ultimately, this can be done by eliminating capitalism, and in particular neoliberalism, which causes such alienation.
Today’s Fascism Rise on the Basis of Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism, introduced after the military coup of September 12, 1980 (especially during the final decade of the AKP) has alienated a large part of the country’s population from mainstream politics, due to an increasingly unequal distribution of income and wealth. We have come to a point today where the richest 1 percent of the population controls almost 15 percent of the national income.²
The relationship between income inequality and marginalization is not accidental, but in fact designed, because neoliberalism has always aimed to redistribute wealth in ways that leave many people behind. In this context, the existence of inequality that fuels calls for fascism is not accidental, but a design feature of neoliberal policies.
The left alternative is required
In summary, only full democratization under a pro-worker democratic government strengthened by the left can solve this problem. Such a government can harness the power of the people to grow the economy healthily. It can overcome the current collapse in public services, especially health and education. It can distribute income and wealth more equitably, thereby fighting inequality and ensuring social justice. It can prevent the alienated masses from turning to fascism.
My advice to Meri is to look back at history.
Finally, a word of advice for Merih: let’s look at some history. We have seen how some former footballers, including F. Terim, played banking games to earn high interest and avoid paying taxes. They were all right-wing, nationalists, and some were even idealists. But today, society looks at them with disgust, not with envy.
On the other hand, famous soccer players such as Turkey’s Metin Kurt, France’s Eric Cantona and Argentina’s Diego Maradona, who say “football is beautiful on land, not in the stock market,” have one thing in common: they stand with the oppressed. The people, the workers and the oppressed.
These football players were never on the side of those who exploited human labor and nature, killed women, raped children and murdered innocent masses, nor did they try to make themselves look cute or become their tools.
For example, if Metin Kurt were in your place today, he would not be making the “wolf’s head” sign, as he did after the victory following the two very stylish goals you scored. Instead, he would be sending his greetings not to those who sold off their country piece by piece for profit and gain, but to the tens of millions of workers, retirees, women and young people who are forced to live below the starvation line and who yearn for democracy and peace.
footnote:
https://artigercek.com/makale/kurtlar-aslanlar-ceylanlar-ve-fasistler (July 5, 2024).
https://x.com/AhmetBeyefendi/status/1809235537984729295/photo/1 (July 5, 2024).
Who is Mustafa Durmuş?
Academician, writer and political economist. Dr. Mustafa Durmuş was born in Kerkit in 1956. He graduated from the Faculty of Political Science at Ankara University in 1977.
He wrote his doctoral dissertation on “Korea’s Export-Oriented Development Model” (1989).
He has worked as an education expert at the Yol İş Federation affiliated with Türk İş, as an assistant professor at the Ankara Academy of Economics and Commercial Sciences, as a visiting scholar at the University of York in the UK, as a lecturer at the Faculty of Economics at Gazi University, and as a senior manager in the private sector, with a bachelor’s degree in administrative sciences.
He is currently a lecturer at the Department of Finance, Faculty of Economics and Management, Haci Bayram Veli University, and a writer for T24. He runs the blog “Alternatif Akademi”, where he has published articles and books: “The Crisis of Capitalism” (2009), “Turkish Economy in the Gric of Crisis Couper War” (2018) and “Great Change-Populist Authoritarianism” (2019).
He is also one of the authors of the edited books Basic Economy of Life (2021), Understanding the World Economy I (2021), and Political Ecology (2022).
