The result was enough on goal difference against rivals Esenler Erokspor, who also drew their last match. Goals from Hasan Ali Kaldırım, a penalty converted by Diagne, and a strike from Israeli-Arab international Dia Saba — a controversial $3 million summer signing — sealed the historic draw. Celebrations erupted in Diyarbakır's streets and in Kurdish communities across Turkey and the diaspora, where Amedspor has accumulated more than one million supporters.
For the Kurdish population of Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast, the promotion is more than a sporting achievement. It is a statement. The club has long been described by commentators as an "unofficial Kurdish national team," and football writer Ali Fikri Işık has compared the bond between Amedspor and its supporters to the relationship between FC Barcelona and Catalans in Spain. When Amedspor wins, Kurds feel they win — and on Saturday, they reached the summit of Turkish club football for the first time ever.
A History Written in Resistance
The club's journey to this moment spans more than five decades and runs through some of the most contested terrain in Turkish politics. Founded in 1972 in the city's Melikahmet district as Melikahmet Turanspor, the club spent years in amateur football before the Diyarbakır municipality took ownership in 1990, renaming it Diyarbakır Belediyespor and then Diyarbakır Büyükşehir Belediyespor after the city gained metropolitan status in 1993. In the 1993–94 season the club won the Super Amateur League and reached the professional pyramid.
The defining transformation came in 2014, when the club adopted the name Amedspor — derived from Amed, the Kurdish designation for Diyarbakır in use for centuries. The Turkish Football Federation (TFF) initially fined the club and rejected the name on political grounds, citing bureaucratic objections. The club ultimately registered as Amed Sportif Faaliyetler Kulübü, a compromise the TFF accepted. Yet the fines and obstacles only deepened the club's symbolic importance: it had been punished simply for naming itself in Kurdish.
The hostility did not end there. Nationalist politicians threatened that they would not allow a team named Amedspor to reach the top divisions. Fans were arrested for waving the Kurdish flag at matches. Away fixtures were marred by racist chants and physical attacks on supporters. In 2025, the TFF fined Amedspor again for displaying the Kurdish-language slogan "Koma me bona we" ("Our group is for you") on its jerseys — a fine condemned by the pro-Kurdish DEM Party as "another example of institutional discrimination against Kurdish identity."
Yet the club persevered. In the 2023–24 season Amedspor topped the TFF Second League Red Group and reached the TFF First League — the second tier — for the first time. Last season they finished mid-table in their debut campaign, drawing average home attendances of over 18,000 spectators, more than most second-division sides in Turkey. This season, under a succession of coaches, the club climbed to second place and held on through a final-day nerve-shredder.
Photo: Amedspor Facebook Page