Dear friend,
Briefly, the Turkish oligarchy use every opportunity to crash its opposition, such as massacres, imprisonments, detentions, torture etc. Especially, since the1980 military coup, the dominant classes put their hands on football and its supporters. The football clubs in Turkey are being used by the Turkish government and its political parties as a tool to achieve their political goals. The nationalism, racism, hatred between minorities or religions are increased through football. The authorities especially in selected certain cities (like Sakarya, Trabzon and Bursa) impose their new order over football supporters. These cities mainly consist of different minorities, religions or cultures. The Turkification and nationalism were the main target.
However, as you presume, football is for working classes. Some elements from supporter groups stand for their class. These groups, all over Turkey, began standing against their status quo imposed by state. And many “leftist” supporters groups were created. Tatangalar is one of them. This group is NOT considered purely a leftist group, but what they have done so far (protesting USA/British invasion on Iraq and Afghanistan, mafia-government involvements in football, increased nationalism, government’s insufficient support for victims of earthquakes, even against environmental pollution by opposing the foundation of a factory within the city border etc), make them one of the most significant supporters group all over Turkey.
Unfortunately, the government’s response was very tough. Many supporters were detained, beaten, tortured and threatened with death or banned from attending matches (most recently one of the leading figure, Metin Dogrucan, was detained, beaten, prosecuted and most recently, he was banned from attending matches for 6 months). Sakaryaspor (once one of the leading teams from Anatolia) was relegated the 3rd tier, thanks to Turkish Football Federation and Turkish Authorities’ plots against the team.
As I mentioned, Tatangalar, is not a pure leftist supporter organisation. According to Turkish Police, Tatangalar was created and still lead by "extreme leftists". It is a fact that the movement of tatngalar gathered everyone (including liberals, religious people, apolitics or even some right wingers) under one umbrella, against nationalism, racism, bigotry, poverty, exploitation etc.
For more information
http://www.tatangalar.com/ http://kutsaldelilik.blogspot.com/