Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened that he had “other ways to educate Israel” if his Israeli counterpart and son continue to “disrespect” his country by calling its largest city Constantinople, and not Istanbul.
In a spat similar to children kicking sand at each other on the beach, Erdogan urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “twist the ear” of his son Yair as punishment for calling Istanbul Constantinople, the city’s original founding name.
Erdogan said he had “other ways to educate Israel” if Netanyahu or his son continued with their name calling.
The bully in the playground responses came three days after Yair Netanyahu, son of Benjamin, targeted the Turkish leader on Twitter, joining an ongoing public spat between his father and Erdogan that would make a senior Russian bot proud.
“I will remind him that Istanbul is actually a city called Constantinople! The capital of the Byzantine empire and center of orthodox Christianity for more then [sic] a thousand years before Turkish occupation!” the younger Netanyahu tweeted.
“I’ll also remind him the genocide Turkey had done against Greeks, Assyrians, and Armenians! They ethically [sic] cleansed all Christians from Asia Minor!” he posted in a subsequent Tweet.
He also added get another Tweet about Turkey’s genocidal actions against the Kurds, and its ongoing occupation of the northern part of Cyprus.
The prime minister’s son called Erdogan “the mad Turk” by retweeting a post that stated “maybe it’s a good idea to start a new hashtag to piss off the mad Turk #Istanbul_is_Constaninople.”
Hundreds of Twitter users from both countries have since chimed in, each calling the other various names with unfortunate references to Nazis and ugly rhetoric whose sole purpose is to divide people.
Yair Netanyahu’s Twitter tirade against the Turkish leader came after Erdogan blasted his father as a “tyrant” who “massacred” Palestinian children.
Erdogan was responding earlier in the week to comments from Netanyahu slamming the Turkish leader as a “dictator” and “a joke,” after a day of tit-for-tat exchanges between officials in both countries, which have been going on for years.
