The footballer Mesut Ozil, winner of the World Cup with Germany, entered Turkish Policy by becoming a principal decision -maker in the country’s power party.
Ozil joined the Central and Executive Decision Committee of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) during a Congress in Ankara on Sunday, during which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was re -elected at the head of the party for the ninth times.
The German Turkish footballer has had a close relationship with Erdogan for several years. In 2019, the president was the best man at the wedding of Ozil with the former Miss Turkey Amine Gulse.
During his illustrious football career, he played for Real Madrid, Arsenal and Fenerbahce, among other clubs, winning the Spanish La Liga title and four English Fa Cup trophies.
He played 92 times for the German national team, winning the World Cup in 2014 and winning the player of the German national team five times.
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However, his relationship with the national team was embittered following the 2018 World Cup, when Ozil retired from international football, alleging that the German media and the association association, DFB, had racily discriminated against him .
“I am German when we win, an immigrant when we lose,” he said at the time.
The episode occurred a few weeks after Ozil and Ilkay Gundogan of Manchester City, another German international of Turkish origin, were criticized in Germany after being represented with Erdogan.
“My job is a football player and not a politician, and our meeting was not an approval of any policy,” said Ozil at the time. “The treatment I have received from the DFB and many others make me no longer want to wear the jersey of the German national team. I feel unwanted and I think what I have achieved since my international beginnings in 2009 was forgotten. “
Since then, Ozil has carried out a number of interventions on political and human rights issues.
He publicly sentenced China’s repression against Uighur Muslims in December 2019, which made the Chinese authorities angry. Arsenal of then of Ozil Disconnected himself of the conviction.
The following year, he commented On the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, declaring that the territory was “legally recognized and internationally as part of Azerbaijan, but it is currently illegally occupied”.
He also frequently talked about Palestinian rights and against Israeli abuses.
Ozil is not the first footballer to join the ranks of the AKP – the former defender of Aston Villa Alpay Ozalan has been a member of the Turkish parliament since 2018.