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Turkey angry at Iceland over a dish-scrubbing brush interview

Strax

Strax

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,280
Turkey has expressed fury at the way its national footballers were treated at Iceland's Reykjavik airport.

In a tweet, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called the team's treatment "unacceptable in terms of diplomatic and humanitarian practice" and said Turkey would "do what is necessary".

As journalists surrounded some players on arrival a dish-scouring brush could be seen among the microphones.

Players also endured a lengthy customs search, Turkish media reported.

According to Turkish broadcaster NTV, Turkey has delivered a diplomatic protest to Iceland. Icelandic officials have not yet responded to a request for comment on the incident.

The Turkish team arrived on Sunday, ahead of a match against Iceland on Tuesday in the Uefa Euro 2020 qualifying competition.

Turkey currently tops Group H, having won all three of its matches so far in the six-nation group. The team beat world champions France 2-0 on Saturday.

Burak Yilmaz, a striker for the Turkish club Besiktas, was quoted as saying the team were kept waiting at Icelandic customs for three hours, during a painstaking bag search.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a football fan, having played semi-professionally before he was elected as mayor of Istanbul in 1994.

His spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin tweeted to say that "disrespect to our national team in Iceland is unacceptable".

"Our state and nation stands next to the national team, who will give the best answer on the field," he said.

President Erdogan was best man at the wedding of Turkish star Mesut Ozil on Friday.
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Strax

Strax

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,280
Turkish football fans have since been trying to hunt down the man with the brush and several icelandic reporters have received thousands of threats on Twitter.
 
Segafreak

Segafreak

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,756
tokubek said:
Paper-thin...
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People in Turkey are taking this as a racist attack on one of their players. No matter how you look at it, it's very rude and disrespectful.

Napoleonthechimp said:
Of course they have. The thin skin on these idiots...
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Lol what, thin skin?

Strax said:
Turkish football fans have since been trying to hunt down the man with the brush and several icelandic reporters have received thousands of threats on Twitter.
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This is a really shortsighted way of portraying this incident. Here is more about it https://www.trtworld.com/sport/turkey-slams-iceland-s-treatment-of-footballers-27355

"According to the footballers, Icelandic authorities made the national team wait for around three hours during the passport check station and rigorously searched personal belongings of the footballers."
 
Wamb0wneD

Wamb0wneD

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
18,735
Strax said:
Turkish football fans have since been trying to hunt down the man with the brush and several icelandic reporters have received thousands of threats on Twitter.
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Turkish Football fanatics are the worst. Every country has their hooligans, but in Turkey it so much more widespread for some weird reason.
 
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Strax

Strax

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,280
Segafreak said:
Lol what, thin skin?


This is a really shortsighted way of portraying this incident. Here is more about it https://www.trtworld.com/sport/turkey-slams-iceland-s-treatment-of-footballers-27355

"According to the footballers, Icelandic authorities made the national team wait for around three hours during the passport check station and rigorously searched personal belongings of the footballers."
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Yeah, this has been proven wrong on all fronts so it's irrelevant. They were little over two hours from the airport to the hotel (at 45 min drive) and were searched because they flew out of an airport that the EU does not deem safe enough so all flights from there that land in the EU have to do this. The icelandic football team had to do this the last time they flew out of Turkey.

Also, them having to wait at the airport for 1-3 hours or having someone interviewing with a dish brush, a person most likely not Icelandic, is not an excuse to threaten people with death.
 
Westbahnhof

Westbahnhof

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
10,104
Austria
Ac30 said:
I'm really not seeing how this is a racist attack? Is there some stereotype I'm missing?
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If I were to put on my mental gymnast suit, I would argue that since a brush (mistakenly referred to as a toilet brush) cleans dirty things, holding it like a mic is an implication that the person you're holding it up to is dirty. Thus, the act is a racist attack, basically calling Turkish people filthy.

Phew. My knees are tired from jumping to all those conclusions. Nonsense.
 
Dennis8K

Dennis8K

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Oct 25, 2017
20,161
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BarcaTheGreat

BarcaTheGreat

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
4,041
Westbahnhof said:
If I were to put on my mental gymnast suit, I would argue that since a brush (mistakenly referred to as a toilet brush) cleans dirty things, holding it like a mic is an implication that the person you're holding it up to is dirty. Thus, the act is a racist attack, basically calling Turkish people filthy.

Phew. My knees are tired from jumping to all those conclusions. Nonsense.
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But it works amazingly well for the domestic audience though (in Turkey)... their dictator's US vs. Them playbook can only be helped by this.
 
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Strax

Strax

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Oct 28, 2017
2,280
Apparently Turkish news outlets are saying the toilet brush man is from Belgium.
 
Westbahnhof

Westbahnhof

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
10,104
Austria
BarcaTheGreat said:
But it works amazingly well for the domestic audience though (in Turkey)... their dictator's US vs. Them playbook can only be helped by this.
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Oh yeah, it's absolutely a line of thinking that's easy to sell to someone who is a willing to buy into it. Sadly.

Strax said:
Apparently Turkish news outlets are saying the toilet brush man is from Belgium.
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They should be saying that it's not a toilet brush instead
 
danowat

danowat

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,783
Westbahnhof said:
If I were to put on my mental gymnast suit, I would argue that since a brush (mistakenly referred to as a toilet brush) cleans dirty things, holding it like a mic is an implication that the person you're holding it up to is dirty. Thus, the act is a racist attack, basically calling Turkish people filthy.

Phew. My knees are tired from jumping to all those conclusions. Nonsense.
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I'm sure you could make literally anything racist if you jump through enough hoops.
 
Segafreak

Segafreak

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Oct 27, 2017
2,756
Ac30 said:
I'm really not seeing how this is a racist attack? Is there some racist stereotype I'm missing?
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Thats how people are taking it, I mean what else could it mean other than "you're dirty", it's not like Turkish stereotypes are rare in Europe.

Strax said:
Yeah, this has been proven wrong on all fronts so it's irrelevant. They were litter over two hours from the airport to the hotel (at 45 min drive) and were searched because they flew out of an airport that the EU does not deem safe enough so all flights from there land in the EU have to do this. The icelandic football team had to do this the last time they flew out of Turkey.

Also, them having to wait at the airport for 1-3 hours or having someone interviewing with a dish brush, a person most likely not Icelandic, is not an excuse to threaten people with death.
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The players themselves say they had to wait 3 hours and all their bags searched. What kind of an airport did the football players fly from that the EU did not deem safe enough, and why does it not happen in other EU countries when they play there?

The death threats are idiotic indeed.
 
Segafreak

Segafreak

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,756
danowat said:
And singing into hairbrushes / dish brushes and using them as mics also isn't rare.
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So holding brushes against football players is common? What was the aim of that guy? It doesn't matter what kind of brush you're referring to here, when you hold it to a foreign player from a largely brown country, they are gonna take it the wrong way, especially with the other incident.
 
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Strax

Strax

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,280
Segafreak said:
The players themselves say they had to wait 3 hours and all their bags searched. What kind of an airport did the football players fly from that the EU did not deem safe enough, and why does it not happen in other EU countries when they play there?
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I'm just saying what the statement from the airport said and with them holding both the icelandic team and the turkish team to the same search flying from this turkish airport I don't think it's somekind of unfair treatment.
 
danowat

danowat

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,783
Segafreak said:
So holding brushes against football players is common? What was the aim of that guy? It doesn't matter what kind of brush you're referring to here, when you hold it to a foreign player from a largely brown country, they are gonna take it the wrong way, especially with the other incident.
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Common?, of course not, but if you're trying to use a household object as a stand in for a mic, then a brush is a go to item.

Westbahnhof said:
That's some grade A self degradation play. They're saying they're filthy, filthy girls, obviously.
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In before I get accused of being a misogynist because they are women doing chores, not men.
 
Napoleonthechimp

Napoleonthechimp

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
2,237
Segafreak said:
People in Turkey are taking this as a racist attack on one of their players. No matter how you look at it, it's very rude and disrespectful.



Lol what, thin skin?


This is a really shortsighted way of portraying this incident. Here is more about it https://www.trtworld.com/sport/turkey-slams-iceland-s-treatment-of-footballers-27355

"According to the footballers, Icelandic authorities made the national team wait for around three hours during the passport check station and rigorously searched personal belongings of the footballers."
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You quote that as if that justifies rage, fury, and death threats. Whipping up nationalistic fervour over things that can be dealt with calmly, rationally, and in private screams thin skin, at worse the intentional work of a right wing government that would prefer people unite in anger as long as it is directed externally.
 
Ebrietas-

Ebrietas-

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Mar 2, 2019
260
Segafreak said:
So holding brushes against football players is common? What was the aim of that guy? It doesn't matter what kind of brush you're referring to here, when you hold it to a foreign player from a largely brown country, they are gonna take it the wrong way, especially with the other incident.
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Turkey isn't actually a largely brown country.

That said i don't think that brush guy had innocent intentions when he did that.
 
Paganmoon

Paganmoon

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Oct 26, 2017
5,586
danowat said:
And singing into hairbrushes / dish brushes and using them as mics also isn't rare.

Woman-singing-into-her-scrub-brush_ymtlj7.jpeg

singing-into-the-brush-picture-id138123748
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So "not rare", you had to find the pictures on stock photo sites... like you can find anything on those sites.

And I can definitely see it being taken as "you're dirty", there's no hoops to jump through to get to that conclusion.
 

Deleted member 8861

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Oct 26, 2017
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Turk here.

I can understand how they could see this as a sort of affront. And honestly, in the current EU climate, a Muslim majority country could very well be subjected to harassment, especially Turkey. My understanding is that a lot of Turks in Germany (for example) are ostracized and stereotyped, so this could very well be intentioned as some sort of harassment. It could also be a very misunderstood attempt at humor, but on here we don't really blame someone for feeling offended for what could be taken as a bigoted affront even if it wasn't intended as such, I don't see why this would be any different.

Now, is it something on the level of coordinating a fucking Twitter manhunt and a harassment campaign, no. God no. Fuck, no. And will this be abused to hell and back by Erdoğan and his ilk? Yes, sadly.

TL;DR: Could have been legitimately offensive but also nothing that warranted the level of outrage it received, IMO. This will be abused by Erdogan, that's the worst part. Don't dismiss concerns though. (I'd also argue that being sensitive to having to wait at the airport has to do with the fact that people from Muslim majority countries are often pulled aside for security searches in Western countries...)

P.S. Fuck özil
 
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Oghuz

Oghuz

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Oct 27, 2017
4,897
The brush absoluty isn't worth raging over.

But the treatment of the players by the Icelandic authorities absolutely is. I hope we destroy them tomorrow night. 0-3.
 
SolidSnakex

SolidSnakex

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Oct 25, 2017
23,354
2San said:
Seems like a pretty racist joke to me considering the stereotypes Europeans have of Turkish people.
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I guess that's possible. But seeing it just reminds me of the times where people hold different objects up to someones face to see if they notice that it's not actually a mic or a recorder that they're speaking into.
 
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Strax

Strax

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Oct 28, 2017
2,280
Funyarinpa said:
(I'd also argue that being sensitive to having to wait at the airport has to do with the fact that people from Muslim majority countries are often pulled aside for security searches in Western countries...)
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Oghuz said:
The treatment of the players by the Icelandic authorities absolutely is. I hope we destroy them tomorrow night. 0-3.
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Sorry but nah, not in this case.

They (or at least the Turkish FA) should've known this would happen. Had they flown from Istanbul Airport none of this would've happened but since they flew from Konya airport it did. Why?

Because Konya airport, according to Keflavík aiport here in Iceland, doesn't meet the necessary security standards airports need to have within the EU. This was proven right by several players having broken rules about liquids and electronics when their bags where searched. When Iceland beat Turkey 2 years ago they flew back from Konya airport and got the same kind of search so it's not like this was a one time thing motivated by racism. The Turkish players have also been shown to have lied about the amount of time they were searched, having claimed over 3 hours while airport videos have shown they exited in 80 mins.
 

Mihai_

Banned
Sep 25, 2018
216
On the one hand, it's pretty rude and disrespectful to use a toilet brush in order to mock a footbal player.
On the other hand, I don't think it's worth a hunt on twitter to find out who the idiot that held the brush was.

The turkish player should've handled it with style, like Dani Alves. I remember when some racist imbeciles threw a banana at Dani Alves while he was taking a corner kick. He just picked the banana, ate it, then took the corner kick. No drama, he just ignored the racists.
 
Tuppen

Tuppen

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Nov 28, 2017
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Strax said:
Sorry but nah, not in this case.

They (or at least the Turkish FA) should've known this would happen. Had they flown from Istanbul Airport none of this would've happened but since they flew from Konya airport it did. Why?

Because Konya airport, according to Keflavík aiport here in Iceland, doesn't meet the necessary security standards airports need to have within the EU. This was proven right by several players having broken rules about liquids and electronics when their bags where searched. When Iceland beat Turkey 2 years ago they flew back from Konya airport and got the same kind of search so it's not like this was a one time thing motivated by racism. The Turkish players have also been shown to have lied about the amount of time they were searched, having claimed over 3 hours while airport videos have shown they exited in 80 mins.
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Well then if that's the case then Iceland can't be blamed and the diplomatic complaint is ridiculous. What the dude with the brush did has absolutely nothing to do with the Icelandic government since it is not an autocratic country.
 
Ebullientprism

Ebullientprism

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Oct 25, 2017
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The overreaction from Turkey is laughable, ridiculous and completely expected.

Having said all of that, its hard not to see a football team being everything short of cavity searched as incredibly and deliberately insulting.

Edit Side note, Amitabh Bacchan, one of the biggest movie stars in India (and one of the people named in the Panama papers) had his twitter hacked and this posted -

D8uEnHYV4Aklqkk.jpg


Kinda funny TBH. :D
 
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