Hurriyet Daily News – Turkey
Oct 25 2009

Police officer takes blame for flag crisis

Sunday, October 25, 2009
EMRE KOÅ?AK and FUNDA AVCI
BURSA ` DoÄ?an News Agency

The flag issue between Turkey and Azerbaijan has cost a police officer
his job.

A police officer who put Azerbaijani flags into a box after the world
football governing body, FIFA, banned these flags from entering the
stadium in Bursa for the Turkey-Armenia football match was laid off
temporarily.

The governorship of Bursa also started a disciplinary investigation
into two other officers for their action during the Oct. 14 match,
which caused a crisis between Turkey and Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani flag was not allowed to enter the stadium during the
Turkey-Armenia 2010 World Cup qualifying football match following
orders from FIFA. As a result, police prevented groups that wanted to
bring Azerbaijani flags into the stadium to protest the decision. When
some of the police officers were unable to find a place to put the
flags they had confiscated, they put them into a box at the entrance
of the stadium in area close to the restrooms.

The event caused a diplomatic crisis between Turkey and Azerbaijan,
including the removal of Turkish flags at the martyrdom monument in
Azerbaijan and in front of a Turkish diplomatic mission. The
Azerbaijani press argued that the removal was reciprocity for the
Turkish ban on Azerbaijani flags during the Turkey-Armenia game.

The crisis began to ease when Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu
met with Azerbaijani President Ä°lham Aliyev and the minister’s
Azerbaijani counterpart, Elmar Mammadyarov, in Baku last Thursday.

The governorship of Bursa has launched an investigation about those
involved in the event. In a press conference on Saturday, Gov.
Å?ahabettin Harput said they had studied video recorded by police,
along with video from 10 national television channels and three local
channels.

Harput said some civilians who had caused disturbances were identified
by studying the videos and that criminal charges were pending against
the people in question.