Political Stakes of Sport in Turkey

In Turkey, sport has been continuously supported by the political authorities which try to promote the Turkish candidacy to the European Union through its capacity to organize sporting mega-events, its celebration of the Turkish sport victories or its use as an instrument of diplomacy. But sport, – being a social practice which participates to the dynamics of identity building – draws in Turkey tensions between “us” the Turks and “them” the Europeans which goes far beyond the sport fields and reveals the complex relationships of Turkey toward Europe which is reluctant to accept it in the EU.