Did Turkey’s President celebrate India’s Champions Trophy loss?

Acclaimed Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir on Monday found himself on a sticky wicket after tweeting out an image of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a celebratory mode, saying that the photo was taken on Sunday during the ICC Champions Trophy Finals between India and Pakistan.

“Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan watched Champions Trophy Cricket final last night and celebrated Pakistan victory,” Mir, the Executive Editor of Pakistan’s news broadcaster Geo News and recipient of several international press awards, tweeted on Monday morning.

However, a Twitter user soon pointed out that the image had been taken last year during a football friendly between Turkey and Austria, which Turkey won 2-1. After being called for sharing a misleading image, Mir eventually deleted the tweet.

Pakistan won the last night’s title encounter in London by a whopping margin of 180 runs to clinch their maiden Champions Trophy title.

Pakistan-Turkey relations

The bilateral relations between Turkey and Pakistan have blossomed under Erdogan, who is reported to have made seven official visits to Islamabad since taking over at the helm.

However, successive Turkish leaderships have tried to strike a balance between their relations with India and Pakistan.

The carefully struck diplomatic balance survived a scare during Erdogan’s bilateral visit to India in May. In a TV interview on the eve of his Indian visit, the Turkish leader had proposed a “multilateral effort” to solve the Kashmir dispute, a remark that didn’t go down well with New Delhi, which has maintained it would brook no outside interference in what it states is a “bilateral” matter.

The Ministry of External Affairs had rejected Erdogan’s proposal. “As far as the issue is concerned, we are ready to address any issue between India and Pakistan bilaterally through peaceful means…,” an MEA spokesperson had said.