ISTANBUL, Aug 19 (Reuters) – From Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan to the national soccer captain, Turks are showing
solidarity with followers of Egypt’s deposed Islamist President
Mohamed Mursi by adopting their four-finger salute.
Turkey has been one of the fiercest international critics of
what it has called an “unacceptable coup” after the military
toppled Mursi last month, lashing out at the West and Arab
nations for failing to condemn his ouster.
Erdogan used the four-finger “Rabaa” salute during a weekend
speech and international midfielder and national soccer captain
Emre Belozoglu picked up the cue, making the gesture after
scoring for Fenerbahce in their opening game of the season.
Istanbul-based humanitarian aid group IHH began handing out
T-shirts and badges with a yellow and black logo of the hand
gesture, an image also doing the rounds on Turkish social media.
Security forces crushed the protest camps of thousands of
Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood supporters in a square near Cairo’s
Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque last Wednesday, violence which Erdogan
described as a massacre after hundreds were killed.
“Rabaa” means “four” or “the fourth” in Arabic and the
four-finger salute has become a symbol of the protesters’
defiance.
Istanbul mayor Kadir Topbas has said he will propose
changing the name of an Istanbul square to Rabaa in a further
show of solidarity, Turkey’s Dogan news agency reported.
Turkey’s strong condemnation of Mursi’s ouster, and its
criticism of other nations’ failure to do the same, has left it
looking isolated.
Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Sunday other
nations in the Middle East were failing to stand up for human
rights and democracy.
“When we look at why they are doing this, we see there are
kingdoms in the Middle East. Take note, all the kings are behind
coup leader (Egyptian army chief Abdel Fattah el) Sisi and his
friends,” he said in an interview on Kanal 24 television.
Several Egyptian television stations took Turkish soap
operas, hugely popular around the Middle East, off air in
protest at Turkey’s stance, Al Arabiya reported.
(Reporting by Daren Butler and Jonathon Burch; Writing by Dasha
Afanasieva; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Raissa Kasolowsky)
