Provocateurs behind Fener clashes: Gülen
ISTANBUL - Doğan News Agency
Hürriyet photo
Religious scholar Fethullah Gülen has blamed circles that desire to disrupt the milieu of peace in Turkey for the recent acts of violence that erupted in wake of a football match between Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray last week.“The incidents that broke out in and around stadiums in recent times are absolutely neither mundane nor coincidental. There are hooligans who want to provoke certain specific matters. These people are almost performing their duty like soldiers,” the leader of Gülen Movement said on the website Herkul.org.
Hundreds of Fenerbahçe fans occupied the pitch at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium in Istanbul following the derby match that cost Fenerbahçe the championship title. Rioting fans then began to break off the plastic seats and hurl them at the police and later turned police vehicles over and set them ablaze. Another supporter was also stabbed in the ensuing turmoil.
“It should never be ascribed to coincidence that some provocateurs keep moaning and complaining as they attack others’ property, lives and honor whilst ravaging their environment and that certain members of the media keep fanning the flames by attempting to defend them and depict them as innocent victims.
All such incidents were planned and aimed to trip Turkey over at a time when she is taking strong steps to put her house in order,” Gülen said in the statement.
