Erdogan’s Turkey “deletes” legendary striker from football history

Hakan Sukur, Turkey’s legendary striker who holds a title of world's best scorer awarded by FIFA, was not included in a “Turkish Football History” exhibition opened in Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s presidential palace.

Once a member of the Turkish Parliament from Erdogan’s ruling AKP, UEFA Cup winner Turkish football player was labelled as a “terrorist” over his ties with the Gulen Movement, following a failed putsch in 2016.

While the 2000 UEFA Cup and Super Cup won by Turkey’s Galatasaray FC were displayed, Sukur, the “chief architect” of this success was not present in the exhibition, Kronos news website reported.

A photograph of President Erdogan playing football was also included in the exhibition, Kronos said.

Elected to the parliament for Erdogan’s AKP in 2011, Sukur has left the party and moved to the United States in 2015, after Erdogan’s close relations with the religious Gulen Movement have collapsed.

A year later, Turkey blamed Fetullah Gulen, the leader of the movement for orchestrating a coup attempt to overthrow the Turkish government. Following the attempt of July 15, 2016, Turkish authorities issued an arrest warrant for Sukur with charges of being a member of a terrorist organization and seized his assets in Turkey.