TV presenter İsmail Küçükkaya erroneously used a parody Twitter account of U.S. President Donald Trump, which commented on a photograph taken following the quadrilateral meeting held between Turkey, France, Germany and Britain.
Küçükkaya, who is one of the anchormen at Fox TV in Turkey, used a screen grab of a post shared by the parody account @realDonaldtrodi, which is run by Turkish people.
"Two Turks, one German and one Napoleon," the tweet posted by the parody account said, in reference to the picture of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emanuel Macron.
The parody account referred to the British prime minister as a Turk due to his Turkish great-grandfather Ali Kemal.
"Trump shared something that genuinely sounds like a joke," Küçükkaya said, adding that the U.S. president alludes to Johnson’s Turkish ancestors, as he claimed Trump’s post became a trend on social media outlets.
The parody account responded to Küçükkaya’s broadcast, warning him that it is not the official account.
"You are in a quite pathetic state if you are a journalist with no sense of social media literacy in the 21st century," the parody account said.
A staunch critic of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), Küçükkaya was criticized for holding a meeting with main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Istanbul mayoral candidate Ekrem Imamoğlu in a hotel two days before his live televised debate with the AK Party candidate, Binali Yıldırım.
Küçükkaya was the moderator for the debate and the meeting stirred up widespread controversy.