Ten years ago, as parts of Diyarbakır in southeast Turkey were reduced to rubble in battles between the military and Kurdish fighters, the city’s main football club, Amedspor, became a target.
Diyarbakır is the largest Kurdish‑majority city in Turkey, and Amedspor – then in the third tier – had become a standard bearer of Kurdish identity.
As conflict raged between the state and groups linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the club faced fines and bans on away supporters and outspoken players. Its premises were raided by anti‑terrorism police, and its fans, players and officials were attacked by rival supporters. In the years that followed, its survival looked uncertain.
A decade on, a peace process is underway between the government and the PKK, and Amedspor – in their first season in the top flight after successive promotions – sit second in the Super Lig after ten games. A win against league leaders Galatasaray on Saturday would catapult them to the top.
“Amedspor have achieved a level of success that nobody expected,” said Vahap Coskun, an academic from Diyarbakır who has written a book about the club.
Coskun told Al Jazeera that several factors underpin this success this season: an experienced, cunning coach in Besnik Hasi, and a mostly new squad of players performing above expectations, including 24‑year‑old Nigerian striker Gift Orban, who has scored nine goals in ten games so far.
The passionate, sellout crowds of more than 30,000 have helped the side win its six home games to date.
Yet Coskun also noted that the “softening political climate” was a key factor, affecting everything from the treatment Amedspor receives in away matches to the refereeing, and allowing the club to compete under fairer conditions.
Reha Ruhavioglu, director of the Kurdish Studies Centre (KSC) and former member of the club’s advisory board, told Al Jazeera that Amedspor’s matches have become a “weekly barometer” of whether Turkish society and the state can accept the club as part of the country “with its own colours, culture, language and identity.”
The earlier promotion to the third tier for the first time in 2013 sparked a stir when the club renamed itself with the Kurdish word for Diyarbakır – “Amed” – and adopted the red, green and yellow of the Kurdish tricolour. Expressions of Kurdish culture and language have long been suppressed in Turkey, especially after the PKK’s 1984 armed uprising, but the club was permitted to use the name Amed and its green and red colours, if not the full tricolour.
It gained promotion to the third tier in 2013, and the following year it shocked the league by renaming itself with the Kurdish term “Amed” and adopting the colours of the Kurdish tricolour. For years the club bounced between the lower divisions, but by 2015 it earned a 2‑0 win away at Galatasaray in the Turkish Cup and reached the quarter‑finals of the Turkish Cup, beating Super Lig sides Basaksehir and Bursaspor.
Bailouts from local businesses prevented further funding cuts, yet the club also endured bans on away‑section supporters, outspoken players, and hostile treatment from rivals. In the following years its popularity spread beyond Diyarbakır, and research from the KSC published in March 2026 found Amedspor’s support among Kurdish adults in Turkey had quadrupled to four million, making it the best‑supported Kurdish team in the country.
A new peace process had been underway since late 2024, and in May 2025 the PKK formally announced its dissolution and the end of its armed struggle. When Amedspor were promoted to the Super Lig, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ally Devlet Bahceli congratulated the club, and Erdogan later received Amedspor officials and players at the presidential palace alongside those from other promoted clubs.
Sports journalist Bagis Erten noted that the shifting political winds have removed the excessive punishments that previously hindered Amedspor, which had faced unfair penalties and red‑card decisions. “Especially when we talk about the football federation and referees, [Amedspor] were always treated very badly in previous years. Their penalties were not given, their red cards were not fair,” he told Al Jazeera. “But now this system at least is not stopping them.”
From obscurity to the Super Lig
Amedspor was founded as Melikahmet Turanspor in 1972 and has since undergone several name changes, being taken over by Diyarbakır’s municipality in 1990. After spending most of its history in the lower tiers, the club earned promotion to the third tier for the first time in 2013, followed by a dramatic turn when it adopted the Kurdish name “Amed” and incorporated the red, green and yellow of the Kurdish tricolour.
The club’s cultural expression was tolerated only after the Separatist PKK launched an armed uprising in 1984, but the Kurdish word “Amed” and its colours were eventually permitted. Significant milestones include a 2‑0 victory away at Galatasaray in the Turkish Cup in January 2015 and a run to the quarter‑finals of the Turkish Cup in 2015‑16, where the team defeated Basaksehir and Bursaspor.
Despite bailed‑out periods and ongoing hostility from rival fans, the club’s growing popularity has expanded beyond Diyarbakır. Research shows its support among Kurdish adults has grown fourfold, solidifying its role as the most supported Kurdish team in Turkey.
A decade on, a peace process is underway between the government and the PKK, and Amedspor – in their first season in the top flight after successive promotions – sit second in the Super Lig after ten games. A win against league leaders Galatasaray on Saturday would carry them to the top.
‘Fragile progress’
At Amedspor’s Diyarbakır Stadium, the crowd in one stand calls out “Ki ne em?” (Who are we?). Another stand thunders “Kurd in em!” (We are Kurds!). In a recent 3‑2 victory over Istanbul giants Besiktas, a tifo featured the words “EM HATIN” (We are here).
Turkish society is now encountering the Kurdish language and other expressions of Kurdish identity more regularly because of Amedspor’s promotion to the Super Lig.
There has been hostility shown by rival fans this season, with some provocatively displaying yellow body bags and images of F16s in reference to the darkest days of the conflict with the PKK.
But Ruhavioglu says that, despite incidents like this, the “barometer” is generally looking positive and that football can help to “normalise” Kurdish identity in Turkiye, as several teams and their fans have now visited the city without incident.
“When you see the bigger picture, it is going well,” he said.
Ruhavioglu’s research has also challenged some misconceptions around the club and its fans.
“Amedspor’s stands are really not homogenous,” he said, adding that while many fans support the left‑wing, pro‑Kurdish DEM Party, others are “close to other parties and ideologies. The Kurdish political movement is generally a secular movement, but many fans are praying in the stadium.”
And although the research found that a sense of Kurdishness and speaking Kurdish were strongly tied to fandom of Amedspor, he said the club should not be seen as “a national team for Kurds”, but rather more like “the representative of Kurdish identity” in Turkiye. Indeed, 61 percent of Kurds in the survey said they support the Turkish national team when it plays.
Unlike when the club was playing in the lower tiers, Amedspor now rarely features Kurdish or local players in the starting XI – it is mostly comprised of foreign players and some non‑Kurdish Turks.
Coskun denied this undermines the club’s sense of Kurdishness.
“I think the fact that few of the players are Kurdish is not of vital importance to the fans, because it is the club that carries the identity, not the players,” he said. “Of course, fans would like to see many more Kurdish players in the team, but what matters most here is success.”
But Erten says the club may end up seeking to dilute its political identity to pursue footballing success or at least avoid trouble.
“Of course, it’s the symbol of Kurdish movement … [but] they are trying to convince Turkish society that it’s a good football project as well.”
Erten says attitudes towards Amedspor show how Turkiye’s state and society have become more tolerant of prominent expressions of Kurdishness on a national level, something that was unthinkable in previous decades.
“It’s progress, but it depends only on the approach of government,” he said. “It’s very fragile progress.”
The earlier promotion to the third tier for the first time in 2013 sparked a stir when the club renamed itself with the Kurdish word for Diyarbakır – “Amed” – and adopted the red, green and yellow of the Kurdish tricolour. Expressions of Kurdish culture and language have long been suppressed in Turkey, especially after the PKK’s 1984 armed uprising, but the club was permitted to use the name Amed and its green and red colours, if not the full tricolour.
It gained promotion to the third tier in 2013, and the following year it shocked the league by renaming itself with the Kurdish term “Amed” and adopting the colours of the Kurdish tricolour. For years the club bounced between the lower divisions, but by 2015 it earned a 2‑0 win away at Galatasaray in the Turkish Cup and reached the quarter‑finals of the Turkish Cup, beating Super Lig sides Basaksehir and Bursaspor.
Bailouts from local businesses prevented further funding cuts, yet the club also endured bans on away‑section supporters, outspoken players, and hostile treatment from rivals. In the following years its popularity spread beyond Diyarbakır, and research from the KSC published in March 2026 found Amedspor’s support among Kurdish adults in Turkey had quadrupled to four million, making it the best‑supported Kurdish team in the country.
A new peace process had been underway since late 2024, and in May 2025 the PKK formally announced its dissolution and the end of its armed struggle. When Amedspor were promoted to the Super Lig, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ally Devlet Bahceli congratulated the club, and Erdogan later received Amedspor officials and players at the presidential palace alongside those from other promoted clubs.
Sports journalist Bagis Erten noted that the shifting political winds have removed the excessive punishments that previously hindered Amedspor, which had faced unfair penalties and red‑card decisions. “Especially when we talk about the football federation and referees, [Amedspor] were always treated very badly in previous years. Their penalties were not given, their red cards were not fair,” he told Al Jazeera. “But now this system at least is not stopping them.”
From obscurity to the Super Lig
From its origins as Melikahmet Turanspor in 1972, Amedspor has navigated relentless challenges before its recent ascendancy in Turkish football. Ten years ago, amidst the turmoil of Diyarbakır’s battles between the military and Kurdish forces, the club – then a third‑tier outfit – became a focal point for nationalist tensions. As the state clashed with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Amedspor faced punitive measures, including fines, bans on away supporters, and harassment of its players and officials.
Despite these setbacks, Amedspor emerged as a beacon of Kurdish identity, eventually raising its profile through a dramatic transformation. Renaming itself “Amed” in 2014 and embracing the red, green and yellow of the Kurdish tricolour, the club found a platform that resonated with a growing diaspora. This shift coincided with the PKK’s 2025 dissolution, which marked a historic