Expect worse in Turkey's sports-related violence, says journalist

The recent armed attack on the Fenerbahçe team bus should not be surprising, considering the worrying atmosphere of escalating tension around sport in Turkey, a prominent sports journalist has told the Hürriyet Daily News in an exclusive interview.

?We have come to a point where, as a nation as a whole, we should feel ashamed,? U?ur Meleke said regarding the situation after the attack.

?The officials who rule the country and who oversee football are not really aware of what we are facing ... We just don?t know how to do sports. We simply cannot manage it. Tremendous hooliganism exists, which is independent of any club,? Meleke added.

Where you surprised when you heard about the incident. Did you say, ?I knew this was coming?? Or you did not expect things to go so far.

I expected it to happen. In fact, I expected worse to happen, looking at developments over the course of the last five years. Obviously there has been an accumulation over a quarter of a century, but in the past five years violence has escalated. A referee was hit in his head in one game, in another one a referee was just saved from being lynched. Another fan was badly beaten and a coach was stabbed on the pitch. So, the disaster was saying ?I am coming.?

But this latest incident is not just an ordinary example of violence. It can?t be explained away as ?fanaticism? or ?sports.? It is clearly a terrorism issue. I say that this is Turkey?s Heysel, when in 1985 a group of Liverpool fans breached a fence to approach Juventus? fans. Thirty-eight people were killed, as the escaping fans were pushed against a collapsing wall. In this case there was an attempt to kill 41 people; the difference was that fortunately they were saved.

Perhaps Heysel happened...