KESK û SOR û ZER: Persistence, Hope, Football – The Amedspor Report

As the Kurdish Studies Center, supported by ETKİNİZ, we have published the report titled “KESK û SOR û ZER: Persistence, Hope, Football – Monitoring Human Rights Violations Faced by Amedspor in the Context of Ethnic Discrimination in Sports.”

Prepared through media review, legal case analysis, and interviews with the club’s management and fans, the report recalls Amedspor’s journey and details the obstacles and human rights violations the team has faced.

According to the report, the journey of Amedspor—the most popular Kurdish football team in Türkiye since adopting this name—runs parallel to the Kurdish issue and peace process in Türkiye. The team’s name change to Amedspor, derived from the Kurdish name of Diyarbakır, coincided with the positive atmosphere of the peace process and a period when Kurdish civil society expanded and expressed identity and demands more strongly.

The report identifies Amedspor not just as a sports club but as part of a civil society movement that stands in solidarity with those facing human rights violations in Türkiye. It is perceived by Kurds as equivalent to Athletic Bilbao, Barcelona, and Celtic, and is even regarded as a kind of “national team.”

According to the report, the end of the peace process and subsequent developments opened a period in which Amedspor became subject to systematic human rights violations and discrimination.

The report thoroughly examines the violations, discrimination, and challenges faced by Amedspor, which has at least 250,000 supporters in Diyarbakır and over 1 million across Türkiye. It aims to deepen understanding of racial discrimination in sports in Türkiye and promote discussion of possible solutions.

You can access the report titled “KESK û SOR û ZER,” which we prepared to highlight and analyze Amedspor’s experiences and the violations it has faced over the last decade, via the link below.