The fiery series in the semi-finals of the Women's Super League playoffs is not ended with the final whistle in the fifth match, in which Dynamo Moscow lost to Lokomotiv Kaliningrad on their site — 1:3. While the rivals were celebrating, the leader of the “blue and white” Natalya Goncharova showed her middle finger to the best volleyball player of “Lokomotiv”, Turkish Erbar Karakurt.
When passions cooled down, Goncharova apologized for her incontinence on the club’s official website. At the same time, Dynamo representatives emphasized that throughout the entire series there were constant provocations from their rivals. Further more. In a blog on the official Dynamo website, the 2006 world champion and 2000 Olympic silver medalist Elena Godina accused the Lokomotiv volleyball players of LGBT* propaganda.
The indignation of the well-known former Moscow Dynamo player was reinforced by photographs of hugging jubilant Kaliningrad volleyball players and with several photos showing Karakurt and her teammates during a Halloween party.
Actually, the Turkish volleyball player, who signed a contract with Lokomotiv last summer (the authoritative portal Volley News reported Erbar’s salary for the season at 450 thousand euros), does not hide her non-traditional orientation. In 2021, she came out by posting a photo with her life partner on a social network.
In Muslim Turkey, this caused a storm of indignation and split society. A year ago, the Turkish team, led by Karakurt, won the European Championship, but not everyone was happy about it. The former mayor of Ankara, an influential Turkish politician Melih Gökçek, said that this volleyball player had no place in the national team and even after the team’s victory at the Euroleague did not change his point of view.
Well-known religious preacher Ihsan Senocak in Turkey, who regularly appears on Turkish television, called Karakurt a disgrace to the nation. One of the influential Turkish newspapers even wrote that Erbar is a “homosexual pervert.” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was forced to extinguish passions, declaring that he was proud of the country's volleyball team and all its players.
Articles appeared in the Turkish press in which naturalized Cuban Melissa Vargas was suspected of having a non-traditional sexual orientation. The reason was joint photographs with another volleyball player from the national team. Aychey Aykach. Only the latter completely removed all questions about her orientation, announcing the conclusion of a traditional marriage with a Turkish man.
Vargas also did not make official statements about coming out. But Karakurt is not afraid of anything. After playing two seasons in Italy, she moved to Russia for new experiences, as she put it. In her first interview she stated that she loves team parties. After this, you shouldn’t be surprised that Erbar lit up on Halloween.
Can the photographs shown on Dynamo's official website be considered evidence of LGBT propaganda? After all, Karakurt did not agitate anyone, and traditionally oriented athletes also exchange kisses on the lips on the court after significant victories. The leaders of Lokomotiv, when inviting the Turkish volleyball player, paid attention not to who she spends her nights with, but to her performance on the court. And we must admit that Erbar is working out his contract to the fullest.
In Russian women's volleyball, Karakurt is the first representative of the LGBT community who does not hide her belonging to it. But in Russian women's basketball there were so many of them that there were enough for several foreign national teams. The most famous, but for a completely different reason, was the ex-basketball player of the Yekaterinburg UMMC Britney Greiner. Even “husband” and “wife” played on this team — Courtney Vandersloot and Ellie Quigley. For some stars, Russian clubs paid for the arrival and accommodation of “husbands” and “wives” who had nothing to do with basketball.
The wedding of American Candace Parker and ex-basketball player of the Russian national team Anna Petrakova, who even gave birth to her “husband” a son, received wide resonance. But Parker at one time had a completely ordinary husband, NBA player Sheldon Williams, with whom she gave birth to a girl. And Petrakova’s romance with the then young Nikita Kurbanov was widely covered by Russian television channels.
So was it necessary for the Dynamo volleyball team to raise a sensitive topic after the defeat in the semi-final series? Probably, it is worth making such statements not when it was not possible to defeat an opponent on the court, but at the moment when people who profess values different from those in our society come to Russia. Although this would hardly have stopped Karakurt. She is a girl (or guy) who is brave (or daring) and is not afraid to challenge even the conservative part of Turkish society. But the leaders of Russian clubs need to make a clear decision: either sport is outside of politics, and we do not pay attention to the personal lives of the stars who come to us, or we do not even invite superstars who have a scandalous reputation.
* An extremist organization banned in Russia