Turkey government intervenes in Merih Demiral ban row and claims ‘prejudice against foreigners’

Turkey’s government has sensationally claimed “prejudice against foreigners” lay behind Merih Demiral’s ban for performing a far-right ‘Wolf’ salute at Euro 2024 and posting a photo of it on social media.

The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued an explosive statement in response to the decision by Uefa’s appeals body to suspend Demiral from his country’s Euro 2024 quarter-final against Netherland’s and potential semi against England.

The statement came following the simultaneous announcement of a suspended one-match ban for Jude Bellingham for grabbing his crotch during a game, which prompted comparisons between the two offences on social media.

“International sports events are organised to bring societies and countries closer together,” the Turkish ministry said.

“This decision, which created a deep disappointment for all our citizens at home and abroad, has strengthened the evaluations that the tendency to act prejudiced against foreigners is increasing in some European countries.”

Demiral was suspended for two matches “for failing to comply with the general principles of conduct, for violating the basic rules of decent conduct, for using sports events for manifestations of a non-sporting nature and for bringing the sport of football into disrepute” during Turkey’s last-16 win over Austria.

Any attempt to appeal the sanction to the Court of Arbitration for Sport looks doomed to fail, with Uefa statutes specifically stating bans of two games or fewer cannot be taken to CAS.

Demiral’s punishment was imposed over a gesture that is a crime in Austria, and which he compounded by a subsequent post to his X account accompanied by a slogan with nationalist connotations.

Former Juventus defender Demiral, who now plays for Saudi club Al-Ahli, scored both Turkey’s goals in their 2-1 win on Tuesday night.

He celebrated the second of those with a salute associated with the Grey Wolves, a far-right extremist group linked to his country’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which shares power with president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP (Justice and Development Party).

Admitting afterwards the gesture had been premeditated, Demiral said: “I had a goal celebration in mind, which I did. I am very proud because I am a Turk. Therefore, after the goal, I felt it deeply, and I wanted to do it, and I am very happy about doing it.”

Among those to condemn the salute was Germany’s Minister of Interior and Home Affairs, Nancy Faeser, who posted on X: “The symbols of Turkish right-wing extremists have no place in our stadiums. Using the European Football Championship as a platform for racism is completely unacceptable.”

Demiral, 26, compounded the offence by posting a photo of him performing the gesture to his X account along with the slogan, “Ne mutlu Türküm diyene,” which means, “How happy is the one who says I am a Turk.”

Coined by the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the phrase has been hijacked by nationalists there and now carries a sinister meaning for minorities, including Kurds, Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians.

In March, Turkish nationalists performed a ‘Wolf’ salute while attacking several Kurdish families returning from Kurdish New Year celebrations in Belgium.

The gesture was criminalised in Austria in 2019 and in France in 2020, while, in 2021, the European Parliament called on member states to apply the terror label to the Grey Wolves movement and ban the group in Europe.

Euro 2024 had already seen Uefa suspend Albania forward Mirlind Daku for two games for leading fans in a chorus of “f--- Macedonia and f--- Serbs” with a megaphone during his country’s 2-2 draw with Croatia.

The winner of the Netherlands-Turkey match in Berlin will face the winner of the earlier quarter-final between England and Switzerland.