wordsmithlind

Following Turkey’s quarterfinal come from behind overtime/penalty kick victory over Croatia in the European Championships on Saturday night, I found myself swept up in a torrent of red shirts, red faces, and red flags emblazoned with the white crescent moon and star on their way from the Fan Zone (a giant corporate sponsored public viewing area in the center of Vienna holding 70,000+) down Ottakringer Strasse towards the 16th district where most of Vienna’s Turkish residents live (which also happens to be the same district where Vienna’s Croatian population lives).  Calls of “Tur-kay-yuh, Tur-kay-yuh” echoed off the buildings in the mini canyon.  An impromptu parade complete with onlookers clapping, cheering, gawking and snapping pictures of the celebration, cumulating at an intersection just past the boundaries of the Turkish market where the singing and chanting continued.  Separate celebrations were happening all throughout Vienna; on the main streets of The Gürtel people hung out of their cars, waving flags, honking, some even stood on moving cars as others maneuvered on foot through the congested streets.  The celebration continued long after I left the area at 1 AM.  

The Turkish celebration differed in many regards to those of other winning teams.  First off, there was a degree of sobriety to it.  The extreme drunkenness that is common in football (and baseball and hockey and basketball…) celebrations was not prevalent.  Yes there were drunken people present, but the majority of the crowd was not.  In addition, the celebration involved the entire family with every generation represented; the smallest children were dancing and singing from the streets and shoulders of their parents as elderly citizens hung out of windows clapping and waving flags.  The Turks celebrated winning, not the defeat of a rival.  The celebration was internal.  No pointing fingers, no laughter in the face of the defeated.  Near the Fan Zone a few Croatians attempted to rile up a Turk; he responded by staring at them, silently waving his flag.  Animosity towards the Croatians only arose after the Croatians began throwing bottles from their own neighborhood further down Ottakringer Strasse.  The police were prepared for this, dressed in full riot gear manning blockades at either end of the block.  In response to these attempts at violence, the Turks sang louder, banged their drums harder and danced with even more joy.  “We just want to celebrate; we don’t want trouble,” a Turkish man told me.  It did not matter who Turkey defeated, the celebration would have been the same—the Croatian team and fans no longer existed.    

Photo by Wordsmithlind

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