Pınar Karşıyaka defeated Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem by 86-84 scores in Jerusalem yesterday evening in the Basketball Champions League Group B match. After the match, Turkish representative was kept waiting at the Israel Airport for hours. The 1.30 a.m. flight of the team to Turkey was only allowed at 05.00 on the grounds that the airport was closed at 02:00.
Pınar Karşıyaka team started the organization with a victory by defeating Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem, the match was held at Israel Jerusalem. The team headed to Ben Gurion Airport to return to İzmir by a private plane scheduled at 1.30 a.m. after the match. However, Israeli security guards searched the bags of the convoy for about an hour. In this process, the convoy started to board the plane. However, as the search did not end and the airport allegedly closed at 2.00 a.m., the convoy was disembarked. The flight was delayed to 5.00 a.m., Pınar Karşıyaka convoy arrived in İzmir at 7.30 a.m., 4 hours late.
“WE WERE SURPRISED BY THE TREATMENT WE HAVE BEEN EXPOSED.”
Pınar Karşıyaka General Manager Selim Çınar stated that they were able to return to Turkey with a delay of approximately 4 hours because they were kept waiting at the airport in Tel Aviv and said: ” Even though we are a newly formed team, we got a very important victory yesterday. However, we were surprised by the treatment we were exposed to at the airport on our way back from Israel. After spending only 32 hours in the country we went to by private plane, we planned to leave with the same group without any problems. We had to return after 4 hours of waiting at the airport for “security control” reasons. Frankly, this practice, which we found out of place and meaningless, did not go beyond inconveniencing the team and the convoy. No explanation was given about the application beforehand.”
