Witness account: We went through hell in Istanbul

BELGRADE - Crvena Zvezda supporter Dusan Jovanovic, who attended the basketball match with Galatasaray in Istanbul when Serbian youth Marko Ivkovic was killed, said that supporters of the Serbian team were exposed to attacks from their arrival in Turkey and inside the sports arena itself.

"There was chaos inside. As soon as we went in, threats and attacks began. The Turkish fans cornered us and kept running towards us, they threw flares, chairs and fireworks at us. It got really ugly. There were women with us, and even Turks who were shocked by all that hatred. There were threats in Serbian, offensive songs, Albanian and Bosnian flags," Jovanovic told Vice Srbija news portal.

Jovanovic, who is a regular at Crvena Zvezda away games, says that the atmosphere throughout the match was tense and dangerous, but that fortunately the security inside the arena was very well organized and the Serbian fans were surrounded by two cordons of stewards and the police.
"We are all in a state of shock today. We cannot believe that the boy was killed," said Jovanovic on Saturday on his way back to Belgrade.

Clearly distressed, one of the Crvena Zvezda supporters confirmed that "things were really bad" outside the Abdi Ipekci Arena as well, but did not give any details as the supporters agreed not to make any statements.

The Euroleague basketball match between Galatasaray and Crvena Zvezda Telekom on November 22 was attended by around 60 supporters of the Belgrade club who managed to buy the tickets individually.

The local police prevented a group of around 200 Serbian fans from buying the tickets and entering Abdi Ipekci, which was followed by attacks from the local fans and clashes with the police outside the arena.