Dinamo Mesken

2022

30min

With the immense interest of teenagers and children in football, Ertuğrulgazi Mesken Sports Club is established in 1971 in Bursa in the Ertuğrulgazi Mesken district. In 1975, Bursa S.C. is rival to the visiting Dinamo Kiev for a match. The young people of Mesken, impressed by the ideology and football of the Soviet team, rename their local team ’Dinamo Mesken.’ As political strife and armed conflicts rise by the end of the 1970s, pressure amounts, custodies and deaths taking place around the neighbourhood overwhelm the team and its players. The club is shut down based on political grounds in 1982. The players and members of the club suffer custody and torture. The massive impact of the military regime after the coup in 1982 that affected both the district and the team are told through the witness accounts of those who have lived through this exceptional period.