Turkish authorities on Monday condemned the “unacceptable” treatment of Turkey’s national football team at Iceland’s airport.
Turkey’s national team arrived at Keflavik Airport in Iceland late Sunday for UEFA Euro 2020 qualifier to be played on Tuesday.
According to the footballers, Icelandic authorities made the national team wait for around three hours during the passport check station and rigorously searched personal belongings of the footballers.
“Racist”, “rude”, “disrespectful” and “offensive” is how a player and fans described the treatment of the team.
Turkey issued a diplomatic note to Iceland over the incident.
Milli Takımımızın İzlanda havaalanında maruz kaldığı muamele diplomatik teamüller bakımından da insani bakımdan da kabul edilemez. Gereğini yapacağımızdan milletimizin şüphesi olmasın. @TFF_Org @MilliTakimlar
— Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu (@MevlutCavusoglu) June 10, 2019
Stop and search
After landing in the country’s Keflavik Airport, the team were not allowed to leave for over three hours and were given no reason for the delay.
Later, airport officials insisted on searching the bags of all players and staff.
To add fuel to the fire, the immigration control took a very long time to process the passports of players and staff.
The team were eventually allowed to exit the airport with their luggage in tow.
#UPDATE: Airport security in #Iceland, searching turkish national football team’s bags one by one and deliberately slowing down the process according to reportspic.twitter.com/8tZNzRHOKj
— EHA News (@eha_news) June 9, 2019
The Turkish NT were forced to wait for hours in customs after arriving in Iceland today
The NT and travelling journalists are furious with the conduct of the Icelandic authorities
To make matters worse a reporter decided to hold a toilet brush to the face of Emre Belözoğlu pic.twitter.com/Ahh1NxSa1t
— Turkish Football (@Turkish_Futbol1) June 9, 2019
While speaking to media on his way out, Turkish captain Emre Belozoglu was accosted by a man who held a toilet brush to his face as a makeshift microphone.
Belozoglu ignored the intentional provocation and told media, “We were searched more than once which was unnecessary, and we were told to wait until now.”
But a much angrier response came from vice-captain Burak Yilmaz.
“What they have done is disrespectful and rude! We have been waiting here for three hours. They took everyone’s bags and even everyone’s cosmetics. They searched it again and again. We flew for 6.5 hours and we’ve waited for three hours.”
Icelandic officials and UEFA are yet to comment.
The treatment of the Turkish National Football Team at Iceland’s Keflavik Airport was not in line with diplomatic courtesy or sportsmanlike conduct.
I condemn the authorities and officials who were responsible for what happened.
We will continue to monitor the situation.
— Fahrettin Altun (@fahrettinaltun) June 10, 2019
‘Unacceptable behaviour’
The note sent through Turkey’s Embassy in Oslo condemned the “disrespectful” and “violent” behaviours against Turkish footballers during passport control.
In a Twitter post, Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu termed the treatment at the Iceland airport “unacceptable.”
“The treatment towards our national team at the Iceland airport is not acceptable in terms of both diplomatic and humanitarian practices,” Cavusoglu said.
Meanwhile, Turkish Ambassador to Norway Fazli Corman left for Iceland in order to express his country’s discomfort over the recent developments.
Fahrettin Altun, Communications Director of the Turkish Presidency, also condemned the officials responsible for the airport crisis.
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