Turks in Athens: "Isn't Sport Always More Than Just Sport?"

Although problems arise from time to time, Greece is our neighbor with whom we share the same sea.

Our people lived together there, in the Balkans, and in Anatolia for centuries.

Even though languages and religious beliefs were different, cultures blended and merged. 

Young people fell in love with each other.

Marriages took place between the two.

There were fights, and there was peace.

As the 14th-century Tunisian-born Muslim philosopher Ibn Khaldun said, "geography is destiny."

This region is our home.

We are very close.

We live on these lands, on the shores of the Aegean Sea.

Through mutual involuntary migrations; the human exchange known as the "Population Exchange," which had painful consequences, forced many people to leave their homes and the lands where they were born, but they managed to build new lives in their new settlements despite a thousand difficulties.  

They used to live together; now they are in separate countries, but they are neighbors.

Imperialism is very skilled at pitting people against each other and dividing them; it has no equal!

***

In recent days, warm winds are blowing again around the Aegean Sea.

Politicians who were throwing barbs at each other for a while are more moderate these days.

As if there were no problems that could not be solved with mutual understanding and compromise!

However, even if the lives of ordinary people are restricted by politicians, the centuries-old mutual respect, tolerance, and solidarity of the peoples do not listen to politicians.  

They find a channel and flow.

***

"Sport" is at the forefront of these issues.

Many athletes raised in Greece play in Turkey.

The Fenerbahçe-Beko basketball team recently parted ways with Greek basketball coach Dimitris Itoudis.

Georgios Papagiannis and Nick Calathes are among Fenerbahçe's most effective basketball players today.

Famous Greek basketball player Kostas Sloukas also played for Fenerbahçe for a time, and İbrahim Kutluay, one of Turkey's best basketball players, played in Greece for both AEK and Panathinaikos.

Football is even more colorful!

Greek national team captain Anastasios Bakasetas came to Alanyaspor in 2019 and transferred to Trabzonspor two years later. He is still here, in the Black Sea region, and is even the captain.

Dimitris Kourbelis and Taxiarchis Fountas are Greek citizens who play for Trabzonspor today alongside Bakasetas.

Manolis Siopis also left Trabzon last summer and went to Cardiff City in England.

Greek national footballer Dimitris Pelkas, who came to Fenerbahçe in 2020, is now sweating it out for another Istanbul team, Başakşehir. 

Georgios Tzavellas from Alanyaspor, Alexandros Katranis from Hatayspor, Stelios Kitsiou from Ankaragücü, and Dimitrios Kolovetsios from Kayserispor are young players currently playing in the Turkish Super Football League.

Previously, Greek footballers like Gekas, Mitroglou, and Maniatis had also come to our country.

This situation is considered normal in Turkey.

Greek athletes come, play, earn money, contribute to our sports world, and we applaud their talents.

No problem!

***

On the other side, in Greece, similar situations have been experienced in recent years. 

Ergin Ataman, who is also the coach of the Turkish national basketball team, is the coach of Panathinaikos, one of Greece's biggest clubs. 

Following him, Fatih Terim, one of the most well-known football figures in Turkey's history and former coach of the national team and Galatasaray, became the coach of the Panathinaikos football team.

These are positive developments for peace in our region to become permanent and unshakable.

A kind of "people's diplomacy"!

The interesting part is that, just like the "eternal rivalry" between Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe in our country, there is an endless, fierce rivalry between Greece's two big clubs, Panathinaikos and Olympiacos.

Street clashes between fans during their matches, police barricades, Molotov cocktails thrown in stadiums, extremism, and unrest are common occurrences.

This is something beyond club rivalry!

Why?

***

The conditions following World War I, in the environment of what the Greeks call the "Asia Minor Catastrophe" and we call the "War of Independence," and the subsequent mutual, involuntary, and forced migration of hundreds of thousands of people are still in our memories.

It is reported that during the 1923 Population Exchange, 1.2 million Greeks migrated to Greece, and 500 thousand Muslim Turks migrated from the Balkans and Aegean islands to Anatolia. 

It is a fact that during the 1912-14 Balkan Wars, hundreds of thousands of Turks were forced to leave their lands in the Balkans.

People do not forget the lands they were torn from. Because everyone was happy where they came from.

Imperialism separated people like a sharp knife and uprooted them.

It drew borders.

Even today, immigrants, their children, and grandchildren still refer to themselves as being from Pristina, Mytilene, the islands, Skopje, Bosnia, Crimea, Florina, or Deliorman.

****

Even if people leave the lands where they have lived for decades, they bring their memories with them and do not forget.

Many of Greece's famous sports clubs have connections to Anatolia and Istanbul.

One of Greece's important football teams, "Panionios Smyrni," was founded in İzmir in 1890 and continues its existence in Athens. Their jerseys are navy blue and red.

"AEK" is the team of poor Istanbul Greeks in Athens, revived in 1924 in Athens by players from the "Pera" team, which was founded in Beyoğlu, Istanbul, in 1914. Its symbol is the double-headed eagle Byzantine flag. Its colors are yellow and black.

The black and white "PAOK" was also founded in Istanbul/Pera-Beyoğlu in 1875 and moved to Thessaloniki in 1926 after the war. It is a representative of Thessaloniki.

The situation of Panathinaikos and Olympiacos, two of Greece's biggest teams where championships in basketball and football swing back and forth, is interesting.

"Panathinaikos" is the team of the capital, Athens. It was founded in 1908. It is known as the club of the wealthy Athenians. Its colors are dark green and white. It is also briefly called "Pana".

The "Olympiacos" team is the club of Athens' port, the great pier, "Piraeus".

With its red and white colors, "Olympiacos" is the team of the Greek immigrants from Anatolia. It was founded in 1925, especially by poor immigrants who came from Western Anatolia.

It is known that the immigrants who went to Greece after the 1922 events, which the Greeks call the "Great Catastrophe," were not welcomed well there and suffered great pain and misery.

Kostas Ferris's cult film "Rebetiko," along with its music, is not forgotten regarding this situation. 

In one aspect, "Rebet" songs, which mean "rebellion," are the sorrowful music of the Greek immigrants from Anatolia.

For many years, there were frictions between the locals of Greece and Athens and the Greek immigrants from Anatolia. 

Due to cultural differences and the fear that they would share their assets, the locals did not want to accept the newcomers. 

Perhaps the fierce rivalry between Panathinaikos, described as the team of wealthy Athenians, and Olympiacos, known as the team of the poor Piraeus, immigrants, and the working class, which is right next to Athens, stems from this class and ancestral difference.

The sports competition between dark green-white and red-white likely has such a sociological meaning as well.

This struggle may never end. 

Let's see what Turkish coaches who went from Turkey to Greece; Ergin Ataman in basketball and Fatih Terim in football, will do with the dark green and white Panathinaikos, the team of wealthy Athenians? 

Their most important rival is Olympiacos, the red and white sports club of the Greek immigrants from Anatolia!

Sport is not always just sport!