Row erupts over Cristiano Ronaldo joke in Istanbul Municipal Council

Duvar English 

A brawl erupted in the Istanbul municipal council meeting on Nov. 19 when a member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) accused the main opposition municipality of being fraudulent, failing to pick up on the humorous tone in the message in question.  

Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) councilman Yavuz Selim Tuncer attacked a post by the municipality displaying a montage of famous football player Cristiano Ronaldo.

While the original photo showed the athlete holding a book in Spanish, the montage displays him holding a copy of the municipality's print of Nutuk, the most famous speech given by Turkey's founding father Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

"We recently sent out thousands of books to libraries around the country, and of course included our new print of Nutuk," said the municipality's post. "But we didn't expect this! :)"

Tuncer attacked the post by the municipality, calling it "fake news" and said that the municipality had been boasting about their book making it into the hands of the famous athlete. 

"This shows the state that Istanbul Municipality has come to," Tuncer said, speaking to Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. 

"There's a nice and humorous smiley with that photo, but you must have lost your joking skills," İmamoğlu said in response. 

Tuncer slammed the mayor personally during the same council meeting, implying he had never visited a high school in the district where he served as mayor prior to Istanbul municipality. 

İmamoğlu had in fact had a library built for the school Tuncer was talking about, he said.