A Kurdish race walker has accused Turkey’s athletics federation of excluding him from an international competition because of his ethnic identity, prompting European Athletics to seek a response from the national governing body, Turkish news outlet Bianet reported Wednesday.
Cumali Arslan said he applied to compete in a race-walking event in the southern Turkish city of Antalya on February 22, 2025, but was denied entry despite submitting his request more than six weeks before the registration deadline.
The Turkish Athletics Federation denied discrimination, saying it had no application from Arslan in its registration system and that the field was full when it later received a written request from him.
Arslan subsequently complained to European Athletics, the sport’s continental governing body. Federation President Ahmet Karadağ submitted a response after European Athletics began reviewing the case. European Athletics has not publicly announced the outcome of the process.
Arslan disputed the federation’s account, saying he was licensed through the German Athletics Association at the time and that international registration procedures required the Turkish federation to register him in the competition.
He said he applied on January 1, 2025, while the published deadline was February 18. According to Arslan, organizers initially told him that registration had closed, then said the 35-kilometer race would not take place and finally told him the quota had been filled.
Arslan said he later found that foreign athletes had been registered for the same race. He argued that his performance record and whether he had a Turkish license were irrelevant to his right to seek entry as an athlete licensed in Germany.
Karadağ said the federation’s selection criteria were not based on race or ethnicity. He said race walking attracts significant participation in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish east and southeast and that several national-team athletes come from the same region as Arslan.
Karadağ also wrote that he was “of Kurdish origin on my father’s side,” adding that ethnic discrimination was incompatible with his values and with the federation’s policies. Karadağ is listed as president on the Turkish Athletics Federation’s official website.
Arslan said the federation’s attitude toward him changed after he and his brother began publicly identifying themselves as Kurdish. He said they moved to Germany in 2022 and displayed the flag of Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdistan region after winning competitions there.
Arslan said displaying the flag was the principal reason he was excluded from events and national-team activities. He provided no direct evidence connecting the flag to the federation’s decision, and the federation denied that ethnicity played any role.
Arslan said Turkish authorities opened a criminal case against him in 2025 and temporarily confiscated his passport, preventing him from leaving the country. He did not identify the charges. He said he later traveled to Britain after receiving an invitation from an athletics club and that the case in Turkey remains pending.
