Arda and turkey stars back Erdogan after coup

ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Turkey’s football captain Arda Turan and other leading figures from the game, as stars lined up to support him in the wake of the failed coup.

Erdogan hosted Turan, Turkey’s best known player currently with Barcelona, national team coach Fatih Terim, federation chief Yildirm Demiroren and other football personalities at his presidential palace in Ankara, the staterun Anadolu news agency reported.

Turan has been vocal in his support for Erdogan since last week’s attempt to oust him.

Addressing a progovernment rally in Erdogan’s home district of Kisikli in Istanbul on Thursday, Turan praised Turks for pouring onto the streets to back the president.

“You are all our heroes, real heroes,” he said, quoted by Anadolu.

“You took possession of democracy. This is worthy of the nation. And you conducted yourselves in a manner befitting our leader,” he said, referring to Erdogan.

“We will together cherish this democracy with our president,” he added.

Turan had three days earlier also launched into a passionate ode to Erdogan on his widelyfollowed Instagram account, saying “my commanderinchief is you”.

The hardman midfielder’s national teammate, Burak Yilmaz, who played for Galatasaray before moving to Beijing Guoan, also took to Instagram to declare his feelings.

“In the difficult days of the struggle for democracy in our country, dear President, we are beside you to the end,” he wrote, showing a picture of him shaking hands with Erdogan.

Meanwhile, the Danishborn Emre Mor, 18, a quicksilver winger set to be one of the stars of the national team in future backed the progovernment protests that have filled city squares since the coup.

“My homeland. My Turkey,” Mor, who switched allegiance from Turkey to play for Denmark, wrote on his Facebook page above a picture of a mass rally in Istanbul.

The failed coup provided a new focus for Turkey’s footballers after exiting in the group stages of Euro 2016 in a performance that was widely pilloried at home.

Arda Turan, a star for several years with Atletico Madrid, is also facing an uncertain future amid speculation he may leave Barcelona after just one season that was largely spent on the bench.

The coup on Friday has impacted all aspects of life in Turkey and football is no exception.

The star striker for Istanbul side Besiktas, Mario Gomez of Germany who was the top scorer in the Super Lig last year, announced this week he was leaving the club due to the political situation.

Footage broadcast by Turkish television on Friday showed a helicopter hijacked by the coup plotters landing in the middle of the Besiktas Stadium.