By Bugra Uzar/ info@eurohoops.net
FIBA Europe president Turgay Demirel issued a statement regarding the lack of support by Turkish Basketball Federation president Hedo Turkoglu ahead of the upcoming FIBA Europe presidential election.
According to Demirel, Turkoglu convinced Serbian Federation General Secretary Dejan Tomasevic to run for FIBA Europe president against him.
Turgay Demirel’s statement is the following:
“The other two candidates are Belgian Cyriel Coomans, who was nominated by the Belgian Basketball Federation and Serbian candidate D. Tomasevic, who was nominated by the Serbian Basketball Federation. The more interesting aspect of this candidacy is that Serbian candidate Dejan Tomasevic was persuaded to be a candidate by Turkish Basketball Federation president Hidayet Turkoglu and his close team. They [Turkoklu’s team] also told all federations that they are giving full support to Tomasevic’s candidacy. This situation and the developments in the election process have created an environment in which many of the European basketball federations are very surprised. They are also unable to explain and understand [the situation]. That is to say, on one side there is a “Turkish” candidate who gave 23 years of his life to Turkish basketball, made the federation on of the strongest federations in the world and the national team won the silver medal in World Cup. The other side there is Hedo Turkoglu and Turkish Basketball Federation, that convinced the Serbian Basketball General Secretary to be a candidate against Turgay Demirel.
“I knew and would not expect any support from this person and his team, who produced much unsubstantiated false news in order to defame and discredit me. However, in such a national issue, the fact that they are convinced that they will make every effort to obtain a candidate from another country and that they will give all kinds of support, and that this person is the general secretary of the Serbian basketball federation, clearly shows their point. Hidayet Turkoglu and his team, who thought that they would not get any results despite all the efforts they put and the opportunities they were provided with, had the audacity to send a letter to the 49 federations which had the right to vote from Turkoglu’s own e-mail address as the last move; in this article, they were against the nomination of old Turgay Demirel Demir; he [Turkoglou] tried to encourage the two candidates being united against me by saying that they supported the two other candidates.
“With this last act, it is clear that everyone can understand what kind word is used to express all these actions. In spite of these behaviors and efforts which I transferred to the Ministry and which are not accepted and explained by TBF and its chairman, as a Turkish citizen who knows when to take the force on his own when his country needs him to, I continue my work. I agree in advance that every result [in the elections] will be beneficial for myself and my people. I would like to share this situation with the public, inform them about the issue and ask the following question as one of the very few people who represent Turkish sports at such a high level in the international arena: For how long will the behavior of the TBF resident and his team, who explicitly conduct the actions to destroy the national values, will be ignored?”
Turkish website Ajanspor published the e-mail that was sent by Hedo Turkoglu to European Federation presidents.
