From Mustafa Varank’s X account, “Continue to fight at the table, on the field, in sports!” The video he shared with the note consists of collage images of basketball matches played on different days with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who returned from the United States where he went to attend the United Nations (UN) meetings.
WARMING UP BEFORE THE MATCH
The footage begins with President Erdoğan warming up on the exercise bike. During the matches at the Presidential Palace, Erdoğan, Minister of Youth and Sports Osman Aşkın Bak, Minister of Labor and Social Security Vedat Işıkhan, MİT President İbrahim Kalın, Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun, former ministers Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoğlu and Mustafa Varank, AK Party İzmir Deputy. Alpay Özalan, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports Hamza Yerlikaya and Deputy President of the Turkish Basketball Federation (TBF) Ömer Onan.
MOTIVATING HIS TEAMMATES
In the video, President Erdoğan, who is the captain of the green vest team, motivates the Secretary General of the Basketball Federation and former national basketball player Ömer Onan by saying “Come on Ömer, make your score”. Colorful dialogues from highly competitive matches are also included in the video. While President Erdoğan says “It was a foul, give it up, there is a foul” after a foul on TBF Deputy President Ömer Onan, Alpay Özalan responds, “I took it like a stick of butter.” In another video, President Erdoğan asks former national wrestler Yerlikaya, “Hamza, did you commit a foul?” he asks. Yerlikaya replies, “I pulled the ball, sir. I didn’t do anything.”