Çarşı: 30 years anti-everything

(PHOTO: SUNDAY’S ZAMAN, CELİL KIRNAPCI)

Although their messages highlight a sense of rebellion, they often call for staying calm in a society that suffers from collective amnesia. Sometimes they are “all black,” and other times they are “all Armenians.” They have defended the rights of the mackerel, and even of the ozone layer.

Çarşı -- the fan group of the Beşiktaş Football Club -- has left 30 years behind always staying true to its motto, “Çarşı is anti everything.” In a society that seems to be more and more desensitized as time passes, they remain a beacon of standing up against what’s wrong. They look like left-wingers from outside, probably because they never fail to ignore “humanitarian” matters. Çarşı members always say they keep politics outs of the stadium, but they undoubtedly have a political side. They try to form their own language of opposition, their own way of having fun and their attitude in their group.

Football having turned into a performance industry also brings a form of political power into the hands of those who are big in the industry. Those who share this power make every effort to exploit the mass character of football, agitating and provoking the instinctual aggressiveness in the average football fan. Çarşı is the dissident passenger on this train. The football industry today experiences extensive monopolization in its infrastructure, whereas the superstructure which holds the power has become overly oligarchic. Çarşı reminds us that we as fans -- even as we complain about fanaticism in sports, or hooliganism, or the general aggressiveness of football spectators -- have been part of this system all along, and makes us question our newly realized position.

Note : I am not Beşiktaş supporter but I admire at their sensitiveness on Social problems.

Research thesis should be written up about them at universities. May be there are.