Spain’s government seems to be effortlessly winning the hearts of Turks amid the U.S.-Israel-Iran war.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s staunch stand against the war despite threats by U.S. President Donald Trump sparked a newfound interest in the Spanish foreign policy among Türkiye’s social media community. Türkiye, like Spain, has refused to take sides in the ongoing war and equally criticized both parties while urging for diplomatic means to resolve their differences.
The European country has already won the admiration of the Turkish public for demonstrating the most passionate opposition to Israel’s massacres in Gaza. Again, the two countries’ policy in opposition to the Netanyahu administration’s genocidal actions in the Palestinian enclave runs largely parallel. But this time, it was the Turkish public who was more vocal in their admiration of Spain over its foreign policy decisions. A Turkish social media user humorously offered free treatment for Spaniards with male pattern baldness in his country, which has become more renowned for hair transplants.
Spain’s rejection of the usage of its territory for U.S. attacks on Iran endeared it so much on social media, another user offered the globally renown skills of Turkish contractors for the “completion of Sagrada Familia,” the largest unfinished Catholic Church in the world.
The Turkish government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan are already known for their warm ties with the Sanchez government but the opposition has also jumped on the bandwagon. Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel shared a photo of himself with Sanchez during a Socialist International meeting on Twitter, accompanied with the message “un abrazo fraternal” (a fraternal embrace), while the CHP’s media-savvy lawmaker Mustafa Sarıgül shared a video of himself visiting the Spanish Consulate with a bouquet of flowers.
Sanchez eventually responded to the outpouring of love and shared on Saturday a video of Turkish flag being waved at a rally of his party. “Greeting to the Turkish Twitter community” was his message as the flag was being waved in front of a banner reading “No To War.”
