He once told the FETÖ ringleader, 'Hocam, come back to Turkey now': A harsh response from Fenerbahçe to Selvi

Fenerbahçe Sports Club has reacted to the claims made by Hürriyet columnist Abdulkadir Selvi, who is known for his proximity to the AKP.

In his column today titled "Organized like Koç," Selvi addressed the Fenerbahçe-Galatasaray Super Cup final, which was postponed due to a crisis in Saudi Arabia.

In his article, Selvi wrote, "Atatürk has very beautiful quotes about sports; such as, 'I like the athlete to be intelligent, agile, and at the same time moral.' He has a short aphorism that says, 'Sport is morality.' The saying 'A sound mind is in a sound body' is very well known. Was the only thing they could find for the match to be played in Saudi Arabia the phrase 'Peace at home, peace in the world,' which was used by FETÖ members during the July 15 coup attempt?"

Fenerbahçe responded to Selvi's article.

"The target of this person's entire sinful attitude, full of lies and slander, which violates the rights of others, is our Club and our President Ali Y. Koç," the statement said, adding, "We would like to specifically remind the public of his column in the Yeni Şafak newspaper dated 9.12.2013, so that they may better understand the true stance and feelings of this person, who has the audacity to associate our century-old club and Turkish football with FETÖ rhetoric."

The statement concluded by saying, "We inform the public that legal steps have been initiated regarding this individual."

The full statement from Fenerbahçe is as follows:

"This statement has become necessary due to the false and slanderous rhetoric and columns that the person named Abdülkadir Selvi has put forward since the first day regarding the cancellation process of the Super Cup Final.

This individual has set a mission for himself in line with the Super Cup cancellation agenda.

By manipulating the facts with the articles he wrote in Hürriyet Newspaper and the slanders he voiced on CNN Türk screens, he is trying to pull the issue onto a different ground and create a space 'for himself' with conspiracy theories and accusations full of imputations.

The target of this person's entire sinful attitude, full of lies and slander, which violates the rights of others, is our Club and our President Ali Y. Koç.

'Ali Koç proposed that the match be played in Saudi Arabia'

'Fenerbahçe disrupted the protocol and strained the process with requests for t-shirts and banners on the last day the match was to be played'

'Fenerbahçe tried to send a FETÖ message with Atatürk's phrase 'Peace at home, peace in the world''

'He aimed for political engineering through football'

'He signed a protocol in the Larnaca match to not have a Turkish flag or banner' – he has taken his lies to the peak with an approach that contains completely untrue information and oversteps his bounds.

The public is well aware of the standing of this person, who has nothing to do with sports, has not received his share of journalistic ethics, and thinks he is doing journalism with instructions received and information served while being unaware of the subjects.

First of all; it is clear and explicit that neither Fenerbahçe Sports Club nor our President Ali Koç has any interest in politics, neither in the past nor today.

Furthermore;

It is a fact that can be understood by anyone with average intelligence that the phrase 'Peace at home, peace in the world' by our Great Leader, which we use in many of our matches, carries no meaning other than the goal of calling for peace to the whole world regarding the Israel-Palestine war,

And that this process, in terms of both its causes and consequences, has nothing to do with Fenerbahçe Sports Club alone.

We would like to specifically remind the public of his column in the Yeni Şafak newspaper dated 9.12.2013, so that they may better understand the true stance and feelings of this person, who has the audacity to associate our century-old club and Turkish football with FETÖ rhetoric.

We inform the public that legal steps have been initiated regarding this individual."

COLUMN FROM 2013

In the 2013 column in the Yeni Şafak newspaper mentioned by Fenerbahçe, Abdulkadir Selvi wrote the following:

"I know that your eyes well up when the homeland is mentioned. In these days when your eyes are swollen from crying and you lament, 'I am being stabbed in the back every day,' I wish you would return and lead us, similar to the steadfastness shown by Hazrat Abu Bakr after the passing of our Prophet, hocam.

Your being there also provides a bed for some conspiracy theories. Please, hocam, today is the day. Things are about to go off the rails. Come back to Turkey now."

Here is that article: