Turkey head coach Fatih Terim did not call Germany's Bayer Leverkusen regulars Omer Toprak and Hakan Calhanoglu for these two matches. Both Turkish internationals Toprak and Calhanoglu were allegedly involved in an incident that led to escalated tension with Besiktas winger Gokhan Tore.
Turkish media reported that Tore had menaced the two other players with his gun when Turkey were in a pre-match camp in a hotel ahead of group game against Netherlands on Oct. 15, 2013.
Toprak and Calhanoglu had been left out of theTurkey squad for the previous Czech Republic and Latvia group matches due to injuries, however both Leverkusen internationals recently played for their club's Union of European Football Association Champions League match against the Russian club Zenit on Tuesday.
The 28-man Turkey squad for Brazil and Kazakhstan games are as follows:
Goalkeepers: Volkan Babacan (Istanbul Basaksehir), Volkan Demirel (Fenerbahce), Harun Tekin (Bursaspor)
Defenders: Tarik Camdal and Semih Kaya (Galatasaray), Gokhan Gonul, Bekir Irtegun and Caner Erkin (Fenerbahce), Kaan Ayhan (Schalke 04), Serdar Aziz (Bursaspor), Ismail Koybasi (Besiktas)
Midfielders: Hamit Altintop and Selcuk Inan (Galatasaray), Mehmet Ekici (Trabzonspor), Bilal Kisa (Akhisar Belediyespor), Oguzhan Ozyakup, Olcay Sahan and Gokhan Tore (Besiktas), Alper Potuk and Mehmet Topal (Fenerbahce), Ozan Tufan and Volkan Sen (Bursaspor), Arda Turan (Atletico Madrid)
Forwards: Adem Buyuk (Kasimpasa), Umut Bulut and Burak Yilmaz (Galatasaray), Mevlut Erdinc (Saint-Etienne), Mustafa Pektemek (Besiktas)
Turkey first host Brazil on Nov. 12 in Istanbul, and the friendly game at Fenerbahce Sukru Saracoglu Stadium will kick off at 8:30 p.m. local time in Turkey (1830 GMT). On Nov. 16 Turkey will meet Kazakhstan in Istanbul, at Turk Telekom Arena where the match will kick off at 9:45 p.m. local time (1945 GMT).
