Ozil, 29, came in for stinging criticism in Germany for their shock first-round defeat at the World Cup (AFP Photo/Luis Acosta) |
Berlin (AFP) - Footballer Mesut Ozil said Sunday he had no regrets about his controversial photograph with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that sparked questions about his loyalty to Germany's national squad ahead of the World Cup.
Breaking
his silence over the snapshot that caused outrage during the tournament, the
Arsenal midfielder said in a statement on Twitter that he was loyal to both his
Turkish and German origins and insisted he did not intend to make a political
statement.
"Like
many people, my ancestry traces back to more than one country. Whilst I grew up
in Germany, my family background has its roots firmly based in Turkey," he
said.
"I
have two hearts, one German and one Turkish."
Ozil said
he had first met Erdogan in 2010 after the president and German Chancellor
Angela Merkel watched a Germany-Turkey match together.
"Since
then, our paths have crossed a lot of times around the globe," he said.
"I'm
aware that the picture of us caused a huge response in the German media, and
whilst some people may accuse me of lying or being deceitful, the picture we
took had no political intentions."
Ozil said
despite the timing of the picture with teammate Ilkay Gundogan and Erdogan --
shortly before the president won re-election in a poll endowing him with
sweeping new powers -- "it wasn't about politics or elections, it was
about me respecting the highest office of my family's country".
"My
job is a football player and not a politician, and our meeting was not an
endorsement of any policies," Ozil said.
"I get
that this may be hard to understand, as in most cultures the political leader
cannot be thought of as being separate from the person. But in this case it is
different. Whatever the outcome would've been in this previous election, or the
election before that, I would have still taken the picture."
Ozil, 29,
came in for stinging criticism in Germany for their shock first-round defeat at
the World Cup.
Team boss
Oliver Bierhoff suggested after the debacle that Germany should have considered
dropping Ozil after his failure to explain himself over the Erdogan picture.
Bierhoff
later backtracked, saying that he "was wrong" to put Ozil under undue
pressure, but the picture continued to draw scorn from fans on social media.
Germany is
home to more than three million people of Turkish origin.
#UPDATE Ozil, who has Turkish roots, had earlier defended a photograph with Turkey's President Erdogan that caused some to question his loyalty to the German team https://t.co/3XxTRNvvYH— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 22, 2018
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