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Dear Sirs, We want to write to you to alert you to the fact that under the guise of match-fixing investigations, Turkish football is now under severe political pressure by the current government of the Turkish Republic. This pressure does not seem to be exerted to clean up Turkish football from its criminal elements as claimed in the Turkish media. To the contrary, it appears to be to force the football clubs to allow deeper penetration and complete influence by the political entity into the football world. We do not mean that Turkish football is totally immune to match-fixing; match-fixing and bribery have always existed in Turkish football as in many other nations. However, the manner in which this investigation is being handled is dubious at best and intentionally vicious at worst as in violation of the law, which does not allow leaking of any evidence into the media by the police or the prosecutors, individuals are being lynched by the media, constituting extrajudicial punishment, which is essentially found only in authoritarian regimes. The charges illegally leaked into the media by the police and the prosecutors have apparently been created by people who are not at all familiar with football as most sound implausible and some even comedically ridiculous. In addition, the affiliation of nearly all of the journalists and TV personalities who appear to be executing the lynching in the media to less than a handful of narrowly definable communities renders the motive behind the events extremely suspicious. The Fenerbahce president, Aziz Yldrm, in particular , has been exposed to relentless media lynching with staunchly pro-AKP publications and TV personalities declaring him guilty without due evidence during his questioning. He was finally arrested in the middle of demonstrations by around 100,000 Fenerbahce fans last Sunday as though to intimidate the Turkish people and show them who the boss is. Now, soccer's Ergenekon is being dealt with. Is there an Ergenekon of soccer? is a meaningless question. If there is a system of tutelage, then that system has its own coup makers. If there are coup makes, then they have their media figures, businessmen and networks. Tutelage relies on illegal organizations. This country has been suffering from a tutelary regime for a century. Consequently, unlawfulness could haunt every social group, the state apparatus and constitutional institutions. The battle is between tutelage and democratization. Today, the civilian authority is calling the shots. All aghas of tutelage and with them the aghas of soccer are doomed to lose, wrote the pro-government Huseyin Gulerce of the pro-government Todays Zaman newspaper, declaring the most successful sports figure in the Turkish football history a mob leader - akin to what tens of journalists and Turkish Armed Forces generals, who have now been imprisoned without a verdict for years, have been exposed to in the last three years. Unfortunately, today the

civilian authority is not just calling the shots, it is locking up anyone who stands in its way on the way to domination of all Turkish institutions. Now it is the football clubs turn. We kindly but firmly urge the UEFA to undertake its own investigation into the allegations or at least meticulously review the decisions made by the Turkish authorities since the new Turkish Football Federation is under tremendous pressure by the political authority and the pro-government media to find Aziz Yldrm and everyone else involved guilty without presenting real evidence. The mentality of just because we know there has been match-fixing in the 52-year old history of the top Turkish football league, these people must be automatically guilty only because we say so is a violation of basic human rights. A human being is innocent until proven guilty, but in Turkey, people have recently been guilty until proven innocent, for which they never get the opportunity. The UEFA must stop the political bulldozer from controlling Turkish football and using it as a means to achieve greater power over the Turkish people. Toppling Turkeys largest sports and football club, Fenerbahce, and imprisoning its president without due legal process will secure governmental hold on Turkish football for generations to come. We are left with no option but to ask the UEFA to stand in the way of the injustice taking place and prevent the imprisonment of innocent people including our president, Aziz Yldrm, who has been charged with setting up an armed organized crime ring for profit in order to try him in the courts with special powers, where the governments prosecutors can keep people behind bars endlessly without a conviction. We know he is not guilty of such a heinous crime and will stand behind him to the end. We thank you for your time and hope the UEFA will be on the side humanity and human rights as one would expect from such a distinguished European institution. We have full faith that the UEFA will stand with the Turkish people to keep relentless politics out of our football. Best regards,