TRABZON, Turkey (AP) — Ever since soccer star Mohamed Salah posted a photo of himself last month sitting on a small boulder in a remote highland more than an hour from the city of Trabzon in northeastern Turkey, fans have flocked to the spot to pose in the same position.
The unlikely tourist attraction is not the only sign of the Salah-mania sweeping Turkey since the Egyptian star signed with the Trabzonspor club in August after leaving England’s iconic Liverpool club.
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Two young Trabzonspor fans wearing the club's claret and light blue jerseys hold scarves featuring Egyptian soccer player Mohamed Salah in Trabzon, Turkey, Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Trabzonspor's Mohamed Salah celebrates after scoring his team's second goal during a Turkish Super Lig soccer match between Trabzonspor and Besiktas in Trabzon, Turkey, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
A man wearing Trabzonspor's claret and light blue colors and sunglasses bearing the name of the club's Egyptian soccer player Mohamed Salah walks through the main square in Trabzon, Turkey, Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Trabzonspor fans attempt to cross a stream to reach the rock where the club's Egyptian soccer player Mohamed Salah previously posed for a photo he shared on social media, in Trabzon province, along Turkey's Black Sea coast, Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Trabzonspor's Mohamed Salah runs for the ball during a Turkish Super Lig soccer match between Trabzonspor and Besiktas in Trabzon, Turkey, Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
His arrival came as a much-needed boost to Turkish soccer fans’ spirits, which had been dashed months earlier when Turkey’s national team played in its first World Cup in 24 years only to exit the tournament without scoring any goals.
“God willing, we will win the championship title with him this year,” said Sinan Mor, who attended a match hosted by Trabzonspor Monday against Besiktas, one of Turkey’s most popular football clubs, which was in talks to sign Salah before he went to Trabzonspor. Mor wore a traditional thobe and a shemagh head wrap in the team's colors with sunglasses that had “MO SALAH” written on them.
Ahead of the match, Associated Press journalists who visited the “Salah rock” counted 46 visitors within two hours.
“If you can bring a global superstar to one of the most remote highland villages in Trabzon, that means something to us,” said Mustafa Bektas, a 44-year-old Trabzon supporter who travelled from Sakarya in western Turkey for the game and made the trek to pose on the boulder.
In the city, Salah-themed merchandise and art have popped up everywhere. Muralist Yildiray Yildirim said he's received multiple requests for Salah-themed murals outside local businesses after he painted an image of him wearing his Trabzonspor jersey on a wall outside a park.
On Google Maps, the club’s stadium is already marked as Mohamed Salah Camii — or mosque — in a nod to his fans’ almost religious fervor.
The move of a world record-breaking football star from the English Premier League to a lower tier European league team would usually mark the twilight of their career.
But for Salah, transferring from Liverpool to Turkey’s Trabzonspor at the age of 34 marked a new dawn.
Salah made a name as the third-highest goal scorer in Liverpool’s history and the world record holder for the most left-footed Premier League goals, but his latest campaign was disappointing. He scored only 12 goals, had a public falling out with coach Arne Slot, and in March announced he would leave.
Since his transfer to Trabzonspor, fans and commentators say Salah rediscovered his scoring touch, with teammates who bolster his strengths and an entire city that is turning into a fan club.
Nearly all the seats in Trabzonspor’s stadium, with capacity for more than 41,000 people, were full Monday. The stands roared every time Salah touched the ball. In the 71st minute, Salah scored one of the goals that won his team the derby and made him the leading scorer in the Turkish Super League.
The chants “Allah Allah Allah, Mohamed Salah” and “Trabzonlu (from Trabzon) Mohamed Salah” rose from the stands following the goal.
“He is a top player and a very good guy," Nigerian defender Chibuike Nwaiwu, Trabzonspor’s centre-back, told reporters. "He brings a lot of quality to the team.”
Representatives of Salah did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
Trabzon, a city of nearly a million people on Turkey’s Black Sea coast, is known for its green valleys, steep hills, a Byzantine-era monastery and head-strong locals with punchy accents.
The local economy runs on agriculture and tourism, and its team, where Istanbul’s jailed Mayor Ekrem İmamoglu was a board member before stepping into politics, is the city’s crown jewel.
Trabzonspor’s social media accounts gained a million new followers after signing Salah, according to local news reports, and new direct flights were launched between Cairo and Trabzon in August, anticipating a demand from Egyptian tourists.
Travel agent Ibrahim Eyupoglu said he has been selling packages with a ticket to a Trabzonspor match, a trip to the rock, and team merchandise.
“Before Salah, even derby games were played with empty stands. Now they’re always full,” he said.
Mustapha Sabbagh has been following Salah for 15 years from Lebanon. He signed up for the package and flew to Trabzon for two days. Then the 73-year-old jumped through a small river to sit on the “Salah rock.”
“Salah is the love of my heart. He has the magic touch,” Sabbagh said as he looked at his soaking-wet shoes and trousers with a big smile. “It’s worth it.”
Even Besiktas fans admitted their admiration. Salah’s talks with Besiktas collapsed over disagreements about his agent’s commission fee, according to Besiktas President Serdar Adalı.
“Unfortunately, I like his football a lot. The man is a star,” says Muhammed Mert Murat, 22, a Besiktas fan from Trabzon. He believes that Besiktas, which ranks fifth, just under Trabzon, would be leading Turkey’s Super League if Salah was playing for them.
Murat works in a tea shop next to a housing complex where locals believe Salah lives, and dreams about asking him why he didn’t choose Besiktas.
Still, he acknowledged, “There is a beautiful love for him here.”
Two young Trabzonspor fans wearing the club's claret and light blue jerseys hold scarves featuring Egyptian soccer player Mohamed Salah in Trabzon, Turkey, Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Trabzonspor's Mohamed Salah celebrates after scoring his team's second goal during a Turkish Super Lig soccer match between Trabzonspor and Besiktas in Trabzon, Turkey, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
A man wearing Trabzonspor's claret and light blue colors and sunglasses bearing the name of the club's Egyptian soccer player Mohamed Salah walks through the main square in Trabzon, Turkey, Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Trabzonspor fans attempt to cross a stream to reach the rock where the club's Egyptian soccer player Mohamed Salah previously posed for a photo he shared on social media, in Trabzon province, along Turkey's Black Sea coast, Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Trabzonspor's Mohamed Salah runs for the ball during a Turkish Super Lig soccer match between Trabzonspor and Besiktas in Trabzon, Turkey, Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
JALUD, West Bank (AP) — Israel's elections Tuesday could mark the end of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decades-long political career.
But his legacy in the Israeli-occupied West Bank — of massive settlement expansion, the displacement of tens of thousands of Palestinians and the empowerment of armed settler extremists — will likely endure, even if his opponents seek to rein it in.
Israelis are deeply divided over Netanyahu's leadership and moral character, but they largely support settlement expansion and are opposed to a Palestinian state. So while Netanyahu's opponents have vowed to crack down on settler violence and remove the most contentious outposts, they are mostly against a two-state solution, seen internationally as the only realistic way to resolve the conflict.
“There shouldn’t be any illusions,” said Mairav Zonszein, senior Israel analyst at the International Crisis Group.
“At best, (a new government) would be able to slow down the extremely crazy acceleration that we’ve seen in the last four years of every aspect of Israel’s aggression in the occupied territories and inside Israel itself.”
One legacy of Netanyahu’s nearly unbroken 17-year rule — the longest of any Israeli leader — is that large groups of armed settlers now routinely defy the Israeli military as they rampage through Palestinian communities, drive people from their homes and seize ever larger swaths of their land.
Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of Gaza turbocharged the process. Netanyahu's opponents could bring in more troops and authorize stricter measures, but the genie may already be out of the bottle.
Netanyahu's government has distributed thousands of firearms to the settlers, who have allies in the military and security forces. Some extremist settlers have become like sheriffs — making arrests, killing Palestinians they say posed a threat, summoning security forces and driving Palestinian families from their homes.
The Palestinian Tubasi family was forced out in July after settlers besieged their hilltop home in the West Bank village of Jalud for 19 days. The settlers cut off their water access and their electricity, and threatened to “barbecue” them if they didn’t leave, said Mahmoud Tubasi, 60, the patriarch.
An Israeli court ordered the military to bring the family back, but that hasn't happened. Troops aborted their latest mission soon after it began, when a mob of over 150 armed settlers quickly assembled, scaled the walls of the home and set a car on fire.
Troops threw Tubasi and his family into an armored jeep and drove them away as settlers torched the place. They now live in relatives' houses in the valley below their gutted and blackened home, around which settlers still roam.
Israel’s military did not respond to a request for comment.
“If they wanted to evacuate them, of course, 100%, they can do that,” Tubasi said. “This is an army that fights in Lebanon, Gaza and in Iran — they can’t control 150 or 200 settlers?”
Under Netanyahu, settlers have established over 250 rustic camps across the territory, focusing particularly on areas where Palestinian herding communities have dwelled for decades.
The outposts allow the settlers to effectively run Palestinians off vast rural areas by attacking shepherds, taking over water resources and grazing their own herds, all under the eye of Israeli troops.
Dror Etkes, a researcher with an Israeli anti-settlement group, says the outposts have allowed the settlers to seize effective control of around a fifth of the West Bank. Israel captured the territory, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.
Since 2023, the strategy has forced at least 127 Palestinian herding communities off their land, according to data gathered by Etkes' organization, known as Kerem Navot, and B'Tselem, another Israeli anti-settlement group.
The departures have cleared nearly the entire eastern flank of the West Bank, along the border with Jordan, of Palestinians. The settlers' explicit goal is to prevent the establishment of a viable Palestinian state.
Netanyahu’s opponents say they will go after the most violent settlers and dismantle outposts — which are illegal under Israeli law. But they will not evacuate the over 100 new settlements Netanyahu's government legalized, including 44 that were formerly outposts. Nor will they remove settlements dating back decades, many of which now resemble fully developed suburbs.
Most of the international community views all Israeli settlements as illegal and an obstacle to a two-state solution. Israel views the West Bank as the biblical and historical heartland of the Jewish people and says its future status should be decided by negotiations — which have not been held in over a decade.
Even if some outposts are removed, many Palestinians seeking to return would find their homes burned and looted, and would continue to face threats from nearby settlers.
“The story is over. There will be no massive dismantlement of settlement,” said Etkes. “It’s now a full and prouder-than-ever apartheid regime.”
Amnesty International and other major rights groups accused Israel of the international crime of apartheid even before the Oct. 7 attack and its aftermath. Israel denies the allegation.
The politician most likely to replace Netanyahu as prime minister is retired general Gadi Eisenkot, a political centrist. He hopes to form a majority coalition with three other parties spanning Israel's political spectrum and without Arab-led parties advocating a two-state solution.
Beth Oppenheim, an Israel analyst for the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the opposition has “struggled to formulate a convincing alternative" to the right's new security strategy of “aggressively pre-empting threats, maintaining complete freedom of operation and imposing buffer zones.”
Palestinian attacks, like a shooting on Friday that killed two Israeli soldiers, and efforts on the right to cast the Israeli left as enemy sympathizers, have taken their toll. “The net effect is that talk of ‘peace’ and compromise has become politically toxic,” Oppenheim said.
Eisenkot does not support a Palestinian state but is open to limited self-rule in the 40% of the West Bank currently administered by the Palestinian Authority under agreements reached in the 1990s. He would allow settlement growth in the other 60% of the territory, which is under direct Israeli military rule.
He has also vowed to empower Israeli troops and paramilitary Border Police to crack down on settler violence.
Eisenkot “is interested in lowering the friction in the West Bank and interested in definitely lowering the sanctions and the intention for sanctions by European countries,” Zonszein said. “He’ll do kind of the minimum necessary to get the maximum effect.”
Eisenkot's prospective allies include left-wing politicians who oppose settlements and have favored a two-state solution, but they have agreed to set those positions aside to form a coalition to oust Netanyahu.
Israeli leaders have long balanced their ambitions in the occupied territories with demands from Washington aimed at resolving the conflict. But they are unlikely to face any significant pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who endorsed Netanyahu and has long backed his policies.
Krauss reported from Ottawa, Ontario.
FILE - An Israeli settler overlooks members of Israeli forces blocking a road preventing Palestinians from reaching groves to harvest olives in the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)
FILE - A burnt car is seen in front of one of the two Palestinian houses belonging to the Tubasi family, which were burned in the West Bank village of Jalud, Sept. 29, 2026, following an overnight attack by Israeli settlers. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)
FILE - Israeli settlers are seen at one of the Palestinian houses belonging to the Tubasi family after they took it over in the West Bank village of Jalud, Aug. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)
Mahmoud Tubasi, left, and his son Wael, over look their family's houses, which were burned by Israeli settlers in the West Bank village of Jalud, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Mahmoud Tubasi stands on a rooftop near his two family's houses, which were burned by Israeli settlers in the West Bank village of Jalud, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
