Football, the ultra-nationalist celebration of the Turkish player Demiral becomes a statue: the sculpture inaugurated in the city of Bolu – Sport

A statue has now been dedicated in Turkey to the controversial ‘wolf salute’ celebration by Turkish national team player and former Juventus and Atalanta defender Merih Demiral during the European Football Championships in Germany. The work portrays the player wearing the national team shirt while showing the ‘wolf salute’, a symbol linked to Turkish ultranationalist groups. The statue was unveiled in the western Turkish city of Bolu, as seen in a video posted to X by the city’s mayor Tanju Özcan. Demiral showed the gesture after a goal. UEFA then suspended the player for two matches. The wolf salute usually expresses affiliation or sympathy with the Turkish right-wing extremist movement Ülkücü and its ideology. In Türkiye, for example, it is used by the ultranationalist MHP party, a partner in the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The promoter of the statue is Mayor Özcan himself, considered a nationalist and who gained national fame with his statements against refugees. The mayor defended the creation of the statue by saying it was “a big lie” that the wolf salute was a symbol of the MHP and the Gray Wolves. Rather, it is a symbol of “Turkishness”. Demiral gave authorization to carry out the work, the mayor explained