Matches between Turkey and Greece almost always have a political edge to them. The two countries have been historical rivals and continue to feud over the status of the divided island of Cyprus. One would expect, then, that games would become an arena for fans to express grievances toward their Mediterranean neighbors.

When Greece and Turkey faced off in a recent Euro 2008 qualifier, politics hung heavy in the air. But it had nothing to do with Turkish-Greek relations. Instead, the game, played in Istanbul, offered the local fans a venue to air their more recent grievances against the Kurdish PKK group, which recently killed 12 Turkish soldiers.

Turkish fans wave flags before kick-off (photo: Asher Kohn)

I was tipped off to this by Asher Kohn, a student at the University of Maryland, who is spending the semester abroad in Turkey. Asher went to the game (which Greece won 1-0, their first ever victory over Turkey) and sent me this account of what he saw.
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It’s one thing to play on an amputee soccer team because you have lost a leg in an accident; it’s quite another to be consigned to playing on this team because your leg was chopped off in a brutal war. The conflicts in Liberia and Sierra Leone in the 1990s left many without arms, legs, and, in many cases, their lives. The man who backed much of this violence was Charles Taylor, the American-educated former president of Liberia. As Taylor goes on trial for war crimes, these two Liberian amputee players – both former child soldiers – are a reminder of his brutality. They play for two of several amputee teams in Sierra Leone and Liberia, teams created not by accidents, but by horrific acts of violence.

Photo credit: AP / Rebecca Blackwell

From the New York Times article headlined Iran Is Seeking More Influence in Afghanistan

“The battle for young hearts and minds plays out in Herat, where children play soccer in front of an American-built school; behind it, a school built by the Iranians.”

From AP: BBC correspondent Damian Kahya, right, fights for the ball against president Evo Morales during a friendly in La Paz, Bolivia on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2006. One day after his government published a list of Bolivia’s ‘most hostile’ media outlets, president Evo Morales challenged the South American nation’s international press corps to a friendly soccer match. (AP Photo/Dado Galdieri)

No word on who won.

Two Afghans walk in a dust storm near a football goal post in the capital, Kabul.