31 Aralık 2013 Salı

Banned Fan Pays Fine With Spare Change

turkce links to original Turkish article

(Sabah Newspaper, 28 December 2013)

A penny for his thoughts...

Businessman Cihangir Kahraman (37), a fan of the Besiktas
football team, devised an interesting protest for being
wrongly banned from the team's games. Despite going to a
match with a ticket, Kahraman was fined for trying to enter
the stadium illegally. Part of Kahraman's penalty was being
banned from the team's matches for one year.

Kahraman was supposed to go to the local police station at
match time and sign in to prove that he had not gone to the
match. However, Kahraman did not adhere to this condition
and was fined 2,000 TL for not showing up at the police station
at match time.

Feeling that he had been wronged, Kahraman decided to pay
the fine with 15,000 metal coins, weighing 45 kilograms,
in protest.

Here is what led up to the fine: on 1 September, Kahraman and
his friends bought tickets and went to  Ataturk Olympic Stadium
to see the Besiktas-Gaziantep match. Because of a disturbance
at the checkpoint furthest from the stadium, Kahraman and his
friends could not reach their seats.

Kahraman explained further, saying "although I showed my
ticket, a policemen gave orders to 'take these guys.'  The four
of us were taken into custody so, realizing that we couldn't
go to the match, we gave our tickets to some other fans. At the
police station we didn't admit any guilt but we were banned
from the matches, nonetheless."

"I didn't go to the police station to sign in a few times but no
one said this would result in a fine. Based on this law, anyone
who goes to a match is committing a crime.  In any event,
the 2,000 TL fine came along so to protest I paid it with metal
coins. I went to the Central Bank and changed 2,000 TL in
paper money for 15,000  1, 5 and 10 kurus coins, weighing
about 45 kilograms. Then I went to the court and paid the fine
this way."

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