ABSTRACT

The major motivation underlying the reluctance to remove fences from Turkish football stadia was a fear of increasing hooliganism. For different reasons, including intensified social and economic problems in major cities, hooliganism has increased markedly in Turkish football during the last few decades. Hooliganism has even mushroomed in the remotest parts of the country where football is yet to emerge as a mass spectator sport. Derbies played between the major teams of Istanbul, namely Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and Be

ş

kta

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, and also derbies played between the teams of Izmir, Kar

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[scedil]ıyaka and Göztepe, have seen the most intense levels of hatred and violence. Even when extraordinary preventative measures have been taken before matches, violence and even death has not been kept away from football grounds. In the 2003-2004 football season, for example, a Kar

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[scedil]ı

[scedil]yaka fan was murdered during the first match (Kar

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[scedil]ıyaka vs. Göztepe) of the TSYD Cup (Turkey Sports Writers’ Association Cup). On 22 February 2004, fans of Gaziantepspor set a stand on fire during a match between Fenerbahçe and Gaziantepspor. On 24 February of the same year, Adanaspor fans attacked rival fans, injuring 19 of them, and earlier in the month Göztepe fans clashed with security forces during the derby with Kar

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ıyaka, resulting in a large number of injuries. In the wake of these incidents, and in the hope of overcoming vandalism and violence in sport contests, a draft bill entitled ‘The Proposal on the Prevention of

Violence and Disorder in Sports Contests’ was prepared by the government and put out for consultation.