At the seminar “Forced Marriage in Sports” organized at Near East University, the social and political dimensions of sports on the island were discussed! The “Forced Marriage in Sports” seminar organized by the Near East University Faculty of Sports Sciences, Department of Physical Education and Sports Teaching was held with the participation of Cyprus Turkish Sports Writers Association (KTSYD) Vice President Spc. Ahmet Özyaşar attended the seminar.

In the seminar held at the Pink Hall of the Faculty of Tourism of Near East University with an intense participation; Ahmet Özyaşar’s book titled “Forced Marriage in Sports”, in which the relationship between sports and politics in the Turkish Cypriot Community from the Ottoman Empire to the present day was discussed. While Ahmet Özyaşar gave information about the content of the book to the participants of the event, the seminar drew attention to important points on the social structure of sports on the island and the impact of politics on sports.

Near East University Faculty of Sports Sciences Dean Prof. Dr. Mehtap Tiryakioğlu, Vice Dean Prof. Dr. Hasan Ulaş Yavuz, Vice Dean and Head of the Department of Physical Education and Sports Teaching Prof. Dr. Nazım Serkan Burgul, Head of the Department of Coaching Education Assoc. Prof. Dr. Deniz Erdağ, Head of the Department of Recreation Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hakan Atamtürk, faculty members and many students took part in the event attended by Cyprus Turkish Sports Writers Association President Necati Özsoy and Board Member Ahmet Özsoy. The seminar ended with a question and answer session and Necati Özsoy and Ahmet Özyaşar were presented certificates of appreciation.

Necati Özsoy: “The state must now have a sports policy with a clear framework!”
In his speech at the seminar, Necati Özsoy, President of the Cyprus Turkish Sports Writers Association, emphasized that the sports policies in the country should be placed in a clear framework. “The state should now have a sports policy with a clear framework,” Özsoy said, adding that sports should be managed in a more systematic and sustainable manner. Özsoy expressed his hope that the Ministry of Youth and Sports will be re-activated with the aim of encouraging young people to participate in sports and developing sports infrastructure. Finally, Özsoy added that he believes that such a ministry would contribute to the creation of a long-term strategy covering all branches of sports.

The ‘forced and tight’ relationship between sports and politics in the Turkish Cypriot community; in the book “Forced Marriage in Sports”! Ahmet Özyaşar, who examined the ‘effect of politics on sports’ in the transformation process in the TRNC’s sports history and today, explained the stages of Turkish Cypriot Sports in politics in his presentation. Starting his speech, Özyaşar said; “Sports has never been just sports on this island, and football has never been just football. Sports, football and clubs have always been turned into a tool for political events and organizations”.

Emphasizing that sports, especially football, is not only a branch of sport, but also plays an important role in social areas by intertwining with politics, Özyaşar addressed this compulsory relationship with examples from the historical process, stating how sports are used for political purposes and how these two fields affect each other. Özyaşar stated that the name “Forced Marriage in Sports” symbolizes the compulsory and close relationship between sports and politics in the Turkish Cypriot community; “Imagine a marriage where the husband and wife do not love each other, but they cannot separate because they need each other. Our clubs and sports branches are tied to politics from past to present. We have such an interesting structure that we hate each other but at the same time we feed on each other.”

The importance of sports in the struggle for existence of the Turkish Cypriot community and in the political context was discussed with examples. Özyaşar, who noted how the political events and organizations that developed in the Turkish Cypriot history were shaped through sports, gave the following statements in summary in his presentation: “We have seen with examples that the Turkish Resistance Organization (TMT) turned sports clubs into organizing centers in the 1950s. We saw that Kemal Şemiler, the legendary president of Çetinkaya, one of the most powerful men of the TMT, the Serdar of Nicosia of his time, decided to close the club and its football players, who were members of the TMT, on the grounds that the management and administration of the club and its football players, who were members of the TMT, would be better, and that the football players would be taken into the Çetinkaya Club. Footballers like Zihni Kalmaz