The professional boxer Ünsal Arik has used his fame for years for political messages and criticism of the Turkish President Erdogan. Again and again he experiences hostilities and attacks.
38 fights, 36 victories, 29 of them by knockout – Ünsal Arik has had a successful boxing career and became world and European champion. But he’s been fighting his toughest fight for years outside of the ring, facing a powerful opponent: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “Professionally I’m a professional boxer and privately I like to cause problems by fighting for human rights,” he says.
Audio: Antenna Brandenburg | 03/20/2023 | Kira Hausman
fight against drug addiction
Arik grew up as the son of Turkish guest workers in Parsberg, Bavaria, and can look back on an eventful career. In his youth he played football successfully and for a short time was even under contract in the A youth team of the Turkish top club Fenerbahce Istanbul. “I was really good. But then came a difficult time in Berlin and I became homeless here. That’s when drugs came into play,” he says.
He struggled with his drug addiction for a long time. One night, on his way through the streets of the capital, he suddenly discovered a boxing hall and his new career began. It wasn’t until he was 30 that he got into the ring for his first professional fight.
Political commitment, on the other hand, has always accompanied him. Even as a child, his critical attitude towards Erdogan was shaped at home. “Everyone in my Turkish family is very political and we have the news all the time at home. At some point, of course, it’s noticeable when the father always scolds this one man and turns off the television when he sees him,” says Arik.
Serious provocation towards Erdogan
In 2014, he saw boxing as an opportunity to go public with his criticism of the Turkish president and send a signal: “I got an offer for a TV fight in Turkey and I thought I’d do it want to take advantage of now.” After the fight, he presented the audience with a t-shirt that read “The land belongs to Ataturk, not Tayyip”. A serious provocation in the direction of Erdogan, which got the ball rolling for his political commitment, but has also caused him major problems since then.
“I didn’t know that there were so many idiots who were so fanatical. They hated me and wanted to kill me. The police in Turkey were also looking for me because I had provoked the president,” he says. After the action, he had to hide in Istanbul for almost ten weeks before things calmed down and he was able to travel back to Germany.
Great concern for your own safety
But he hadn’t reached the supposedly saving ground there either. “I met the even bigger idiots here in Germany,” he says. At first it was just insults and threats that Erdogan’s supporters threw at him on social networks. But it shouldn’t stop there. Three years ago, two men ambushed him on the street in Berlin and wounded him with a knife. In 2021, an attack on him while training in a park ended in a bloody brawl. Also, one morning he found shell casings strewn all over his car.
He no longer feels safe in Berlin since then. “It’s more blatant than many think. I rarely leave the house. Only to go for a walk and to train. And then I drive the car,” he says. Arik would now completely avoid some districts such as Neukölln or Kreuzberg. “These are two taboo places for me. You don’t have to put yourself in danger voluntarily.”
But that doesn’t stop him from positioning himself clearly. Again and again he sends messages against Erdogan via social media. In a hip-hop song, he recently compared the Turkish president to Adolf Hitler, for which he faces up to 15 years in prison in Turkey. According to his own statements, he has now been charged more than 50 times by the Turkish judiciary for insults and alleged threats of violence. A trip to his homeland has therefore become impossible for him.
Audio: Antenna Brandenburg | 03/16/2023 | Robert Schwass
From the boxing ring to the Bundestag?
At the age of 42, his sporting career is slowly coming to an end. It’s been a while since his last fight and Arik doesn’t yet know if and when he’ll get back in the ring. But his political commitment should continue. “Boxing is just a means to an end. Standing up for human rights is more important to me,” he says. And so he could imagine a completely different career. In 2019 he completed an internship in the Bundestag and has been in contact with the SPD Federal Chairman Lars Klingbeil ever since. “Let’s see what happens,” he says.
A job in politics would definitely be an option for him. Arik is not only concerned with the problems in Turkey. He also wants to do something about the xenophobia that he experiences again and again in Germany. He has just published his biography, in which many of these experiences are processed and with which he is pursuing a major goal: “Germans and Turks should finally understand each other better and this book will enlighten them.”
He is hoping for a change of government in his Turkish home country in the upcoming elections in May. “The earthquake opened the eyes of many people and I hope that people have really finally woken up,” he says. Until then, he wants to continue to get involved as much as possible and fight for a better situation in Turkey.
