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Hakan Sükür 2005 in a duel with the Swiss Philippe Senderos.
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Sükür has played over 110 games for Turkey.
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In 2005 he fought against Switzerland in the barrage for World Cup participation.
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In his homeland in Turkey, he was declared an enemy of the state.
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AFP
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This is because he criticized President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
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He is probably the greatest Turkish footballer ever. Hakan Sükür has played over 110 games for his home country. With Galatasaray he won the Uefa Cup and eight times the Turkish championship. In 2006, he was on the pitch for the memorable World Cup barrage duel in which there were fierce fights in the return leg in Istanbul after Switzerland qualified for the World Cup.
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Sükür is a legend. An exceptional talent. A football hero. At least it is in most countries around the world. But no longer in his home country. In Turkey, the 48-year-old has now been declared a persona non grata, an enemy of the state. For example, he is accused of having participated in the 2016 coup attempt, which aimed to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Nonsense, Sükür asserts in an interview in “Welt am Sonntag”. «What should my role have been? No one has been able to explain that to me to date.
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Erdogan has destroyed his life
However, the former professional makes no secret of the fact that he dislikes Erdogan’s politics. «I am an enemy of the government, not the state and not the Turkish nation. I love our flag, our country. I am an enemy of wrong politics and an attitude that aims to detach from the West, »said Sükür. Expressing criticism against the Turkish president is a dangerous undertaking. Sükür has to experience it firsthand. Erdogan has destroyed his life.
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It all starts in 2011 when the retired footballer joins the AKP. In that party of today’s President Erdogan. One wanted to benefit from its popularity, says Sükür. He gets to know Turkish politics in parliament. It is not going in the direction that Sükür had hoped that it would be “oriented towards the Middle East instead of Europe”, moving further and further away from democracy.
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Sükür resigns in 2013. “Then hostilities began.” He was threatened, his wife’s boutique was thrown at with stones, his children were bothered on the street, his father was locked up. Sükür escapes to the USA with his loved ones.
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The struggle for democracy
He still lives there today. And earned his living as an Uber driver and book seller. The money he saved as a footballer is gone. «I invested my assets in Turkey. Everything I had was now confiscated. I have nothing left anywhere in the world. »
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Nevertheless, he still wants to work for his home country. You have to fight for something to change. “To do this, we would need the support of influential countries. Everyone must fight for democracy and freedom together, »says Sükür. And in the end of “Welt am Sonntag”, he turns directly to the Turkish president: “Return to democracy, justice and human rights. Be one who cares about people’s problems. Become the president that Turkey needs. Many people follow you, listen to you. So spread peace. These are values that apply to the whole world. »(Mam)
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