The fear of Atatürk!

Let us take the legendary title that became a cult in world sports literature with British author Simon Kuper's 1994 book “Football is never just football” and change it to “In Turkey, the Super Cup is never just the Super Cup” to begin our discussion.

Regardless of the excuses they announced beforehand, their entire concern was actually to gain a foothold through football in their policy of Middle Easternizing Turkey, turning Turkish society into an 'ummah', and neutralizing anyone who is not a political Islamist, who does not think like them, and who is committed to the country's founding values.

While the 100th anniversary of the Republic—which saved Turkey from the domination of religion, took sovereignty from sultans and the heavens to give it to the nation, and transformed its people from subjects into citizens—was being celebrated, the effort to play the Super Cup match in Saudi Arabia, where a medieval mentality still prevails in the 21st century, was a clear challenge to the country's founding values and the people who embrace them!

Of course, on the other hand, let us not overlook the “emotional” dimension of the issue, and let us not ignore the government's intention to get a little more of a share of the Arabs' petrodollars during a period when the country is struggling with an economic crisis.

In other words, a classic Erdoğan approach; a strategy of killing three or five birds with one stone!

But it didn't work; they couldn't pull it off.

The Super Cup match between Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray was canceled following the “Atatürk crisis” in Saudi Arabia.

Both teams wanted to take the field with banners reading “Peace at Home, Peace in the World” and “How Happy is the One Who Says I am a Turk.”

Ultimately, this was a match between Turkish teams. In the year the Republic surpassed a century, it was very natural for both Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe to want to pay their respects to Atatürk.

Saudi Arabia was merely the host.

However, Saudi officials said “no,” you cannot take the field with t-shirts featuring Atatürk or banners with Atatürk's quotes on them!

You know what happened next!

There was a major backlash from Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe against this stance by the Saudis.

Al-Riyadh News reported that Fenerbahçe Club President Ali Koç reacted during the meeting where TFF officials were trying to pressure him to play the match by saying, “What do you mean no Atatürk? If there is no Atatürk, there is no Turkey, we are not here, and there is no match.”

The match was canceled, and both teams hopped on their planes and headed back to Turkey!

The arrogance of the conceited Saudis, who think they can buy everything with the dollars in their hands, remained helpless in the face of the pride of the Turkish teams.

Of course, the issue was not just football or the Turkish Super Cup. The issue was entirely political.

Saudi Arabia will be deprived of oil in the foreseeable future. The wells from which they earn money recklessly will run dry.

With today's consumption rate, it is predicted that the world's oil and natural gas will run out in 41 years.

Maybe 50, let's say 60 years. Even if they gradually reduce supply, they will be without oil within a century at the latest.

That is why, without abandoning the Wahhabi mentality, if possible with minor reforms but while maintaining the absolute monarchy regime as it is, and without ever touching the royal family, they are looking for a place for themselves in the modern world with the trillion dollars they hold.

They are exporting capital and making huge investments in companies that produce new technologies worldwide, in real estate, in the sports industry—especially football—in transportation, and in trade routes.

They are concerned with protecting their current wealth and privileges with the income they will derive from this.

At the same time, they want to have a say in global strategic planning, such as the new Silk Road project that will extend from India to Europe.

Of course, they are exploiting the hypocrisy of the West to the fullest, as it ignores human rights, democracy, and the rule of law when its own interests are at stake.

However, the Saudi Kingdom's greatest fear, even though it is making a cautious opening to the outside, is that a side effect of this will be the emergence of demands for democracy in the country. For example, a new Arab Spring this time targeting only monarchies!

It is worth sitting down and speaking honestly. It is not Western democracies that create this fear in the Saudi Kingdom. What they are truly afraid of is the Republic regime in Turkey serving as an example for Saudi Arabia!

The fact that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk created a new and strong country from the ruins of a collapsing empire, gave sovereignty to the nation instead of God despite a significant portion of its population being Muslim, adopted secularism, and set the level of contemporary civilization as the target, is the nightmare of the medieval-relic Wahhabi mentality.

What if what happened to the Ottoman dynasty also happens to the Saudi Kingdom?

What if the Arabs also stand up one day and say, “enough is enough, why can't we do what the Turks did a century ago?”

We are not very sure if they will say it, but Saudi Arabia has viewed the Republic regime, secularism, and social dynamics in Turkey as an existential threat to itself since the day it was founded.

Even though the political Islamist mentality that has been in power since 2002 has significantly eroded the country's founding values and they themselves have been giving strong support to this, the Saudis' fear has not passed.

Because they see that there is a strong Republican and Kemalist vein in Turkey, as seen in the national reflex that emerged during the Super Cup match.

What will happen when the political Islamist government at the head of Turkey leaves the country's helm tomorrow or the next day!

In short, let us conclude the article by saying that the crisis in Riyadh consists of an archaic mentality's head crashing hard against the wall of republicanism, contemporaneity, and modernity; and let us put a period to our writing by wishing 2024 to be a year in which reason prevails all over the world, and a year that is more just and full of peace.