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Did Ottoman commander plunder Madinah? UAE, Turkey scuffle intensifies

Sunday December 24, 2017 2:35 PM, ummid.com & Agencies

Turkey UAE
[UAE's Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in a file photo.]

Ankara/Dubai: The diplomatic row between Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) intensified further after the former decided on Saturday to rename the street where the embassy of the latter in Ankara is located after Ottoman commander Fahreddin Pasha.

The Turkish move followed a Twitter post by an Iraqi man re-tweeted by UAE's Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan accusing Ottomans of committing crimes against the locals in Medina during World War I.

The tweet originally in Arabic if translated, reads: “Did you know that in 1916, Turkish Fahreddin Pasha committed a crime against the people of Medina, stole their properties, and put them on a train en route to Damascus and Istanbul? Also the Turks stole the handwritten books in Mahmoudia Library and took them to Istanbul. This is the history of Erdoğan's ancestors and what they did to Muslim Arabs."

The tweet left red-faced top Turkish leadership, including President Tayyip Erdogan who said the Ottomans had done nothing but serve to protect the holy cities of Islam.

A few days after the Emirati minister's re-tweet, Ankara Mayor Mustafa Tuna decided to rename the 613. Street, where the UAE embassy is located, as a reaction to the incident, according to Daily Sabah.

"The street will be renamed as Fahreddin Pasha Street -- after the Ottoman governor of Medina from 1916-1919", the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality said according to Anadolu Agency.

The name of the street and all signs are expected to be changed to "Fahreddin Paşa Sokağı" (Fahreddin Pasha Street) after the first municipal council meeting.

Relation between the Middle East neighbors are under strain ever since Qatar refused to stop its alleged support to terrorist groups as accused by Saudi Arabia, UAE and other GCC members. Turkey is siding with Qatar in this time of crisis.


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