Turkey says ban on Demiral for Euro wolf salute is unfair

Turkey defender Merih Demiral will miss his side’s Euro 2024 quarter-final against the Netherlands after UEFA suspended him for two games on Friday for making an ultra-nationalist salute, a move Ankara called “unfair and biased”.

Demiral scored both of Turkey’s goals in their 2-1 last-16 win over Austria on Tuesday and during celebrations for his second goal he made a gesture associated with Turkey’s far-right Grey Wolves group.

UEFA said in a statement that it was banning Demiral “for violating basic rules of good conduct, for using sporting events for demonstrations of a non-sporting nature and for bringing football into disrepute.”

If Turkey beat the Netherlands on Saturday, Demiral will also miss the semi-final against England or Switzerland.

Turkish Sports Minister Osman Askin Bak said the ban was politically motivated.

“We condemn UEFA’s unfair and biased decision, which has no legal basis and which we consider to be purely political,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Demiral said his celebration was linked to his “Turkish identity.”

The 26-year-old former Juventus defender, now at Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia, insisted there was no “hidden message” in the greeting.

Demiral posted a photo of his celebration on X with the caption, “How happy is he who says ‘I am Turkish’!”

His move sparked a diplomatic row between Turkey and Germany, the host country of Euro 2024, where around three million Turks live.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser warned that “symbols of Turkish right-wing extremists have no place in our stadiums.”

Turkey then summoned the German ambassador on Wednesday over politicians’ reactions to Demiral’s celebration.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will attend the quarter-final at the Olympiastadion in the German capital, where tens of thousands of Turks are expected.

Erdogan himself said Demiral was only “showing his enthusiasm” and several ministers and the spokesman for his ruling AKP party condemned Faeser’s reaction.

Accusations of xenophobia

The Grey Wolves advocated radical ideas and used violence in the 1980s against left-wing activists and ethnic minorities.

The group was banned in Austria and France, but not in Germany.

German Agriculture Minister Cem Ozdemir said on Wednesday that “there is nothing hidden in the wolf’s salvation.”

Ozdemir, one of Germany’s most prominent politicians of Turkish origin, said the symbol “represents terrorism (and) fascism.”

The Grey Wolves were labelled a “terrorist organisation” by the European Parliament in 2021 and “particularly threatening to people of Kurdish, Armenian or Greek origin and to anyone they consider an adversary”.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry accused German authorities of “xenophobia” and stressed that German intelligence had stressed in its report that “any person making the sign of the grey wolf cannot be classified as a far-right extremist.”

Demiral’s goals helped Turkey reach the quarter-finals of a major tournament for the first time since 2008.

With such a large Turkish diaspora in Germany, the team has enjoyed significant support across the country for its Euro 2024 matches.

Berlin police said they would deploy more officers than usual for Saturday’s quarter-final, which is considered a “high-risk match”.

The German capital is home to the largest Turkish community outside Turkey, many of them descendants of “guest workers” brought in as part of a massive economic programme in the 1960s and 1970s.