Turkey’s Kurdish question came to the surface in Finland especially in 2022 after the NATO application process started. The subject is sensitive. Freelancer Makwan Amirkhani, 35, is a Kurd born in Iran who moved to Finland as a child through Iraq. He faces him in the Czech Republic on June 8 Attila Korkmaza 32-year-old Turkish German.
The Kurds do not have their own independent state and a large part of the Kurdish areas are located in Turkey, where there have been attempts to Turkify the Kurds and deny their existence as a minority nation. At times, relations between Turkey and the Kurds have eased, but the diplomatic conflict is long. According to estimates, approximately 15 million Kurds live in Turkey, which has more than 86 million inhabitants.
When the Oktagon free fight organization announced the match between Amirkhani and Korkmaz, Amirkhani, who lives in Varsinais Suomi posted an update on his Instagram account. In it, he said that the match is not political for him, but that it would be worth investing in security measures at the Fortuna Arena in Prague.
Why then did Amirkhani bring up politics in his update and deliberately bring it up?
– It’s not political for me, but I know that it is. Like it or not, it will. I don’t want to comment on the matter, but I know that no one can rule out that it would arouse interest when a Turk and a Kurd fight, Amirkhani explains to Urheilu.
According to Urheilu, Korkmaz, who lives in Germany, sometimes goes to train in Finland. However, Amirkhan’s opponent was not interested in an interview. Amirkhani himself ignores the information about Korkmaz’s visits to Finland and says that in the end it is “one and the same whether it is Attila or another UFC fighter”.
Amirkhani anticipates that there may be additional tension and charging in the audience due to the contestants’ backgrounds.
– I don’t talk so much about myself, it’s everyday for me to go to a match. I don’t take the matter personally, nor the person I hardly see after that day, says Amirkhani.
The fans voted for the match pair
Amirkhani and Korkmaz were selected against each other through audience voting. The losers of Octagon’s million-euro lightweight tournament got into the Lucky loser vote, from which the two who got the most votes got into the reserve match. Amirkhani got the third most votes, but when Vladimír Lengál was not available, the Finn was substituted against Korkmaz.
The winner of the match between Amirkhani and Korkmaz can therefore open the back door to the tournament, if the contestants participating in the competition are injured. They are possible in a violent sport like freestyle.
Amirkhani suffered a third-round knockout loss in March Mochamed Machaevi against. After the match, he hinted on Instagram that his career ended in defeat. However, the conclusions about the end of Finland’s most successful freestyle career were premature. We still have to try.
– Those opportunities will not end, and there is no day in sight that this would be here. And there won’t be such pressure that if I don’t succeed now, that’s it. Not really, Amirkhani says he’s thinking now.
Ending a three-game losing streak is on the mind.
– Fortunately, I have drawn my guts from Finland. I can’t stop as long as I’m honest with myself and I know there’s potential, Amirkhani continues.
In the end, reaching the reserve match through voting is not the most important thing for Makwani. What is more important is that you can hunt for a profit soon after a loss. It doesn’t help to worry, you have to look forward.
– Yes, there is enough demand, there is no such stress that the match will not be offered. Came to a good seam when there is no long break. I want to challenge myself suddenly, when I know that everything didn’t go well again.
“Are we in the right field anymore?”
While preparing for the match, Amirkhani has visited, among other places, Slovakia to train as a UFC fighter Ludovit Kleinin by. He took it as a challenge for himself: in a UFC-level club, there was a place to test whether his skills are still sufficient.
It is also perhaps a matter of whether Amirkhani has challenged himself enough so far.
– In that sense, it was a place to show, when thoughts can come into your head after a loss, whether you are in the right field anymore, Amirkhani reflects.
The Finn talks a lot about the fact that work has been done for years, but it still feels that the full potential has not yet been realized in matches.
Amirkhani, who has played no fewer than 27 professional matches in his career, feels that there is still more to measure. According to him, there is still no pressure.
– I don’t owe anyone anything. There is nothing to prove to anyone. I have proven my skills on several occasions. Yes, this will turn into a joy.
Amirkhani plans to approach the match with joy. He says that he is grateful that he can still take it at all. With positive thinking, the negative column of the last matches can perhaps be reversed.
– I feel really good at the moment. I am calm. When Maku is calm, it means that everything is fine. No unnecessary lip service.
Having accumulated experience, Amirkhani has been waiting for the more balanced state of being he described.
– Now it feels like this is the moment.