Germany summons Turkish ambassador over right-wing 'wolf' goal celebration

BERLIN: Türkiye's ambassador to Germany has been summoned over a Turkish football player's "wolf salute" goal celebration, the German foreign ministry said on Thursday (Jul 4), ramping up a diplomatic spat amid reports that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will come to Berlin this weekend.

European soccer's governing body UEFA opened an investigation into the Turkish centre-back Merih Demiral's celebration after scoring in a Tuesday evening European Championship match. Germany condemned the gesture as racist due to its far-right associations.

Türkiye's foreign ministry said UEFA's probe was unacceptable and that German authorities' approach to Demiral "involved xenophobia".

The ministry had summoned Germany's ambassador to Ankara over the dispute, a Turkish diplomatic source said on Wednesday.

German and Turkish media reported on Thursday that Erdogan now planned to come to Berlin on Saturday for Türkiye's game against the Netherlands.

Erdogan changed his schedule to attend the game, NTV and other Turkish media reported on Thursday.

He was scheduled to attend a summit of the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS) in Azerbaijan on Saturday.

The gesture made by the player is linked to the "Grey Wolves", an ultra-nationalist youth branch of Türkiye's Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), an ally of Erdogan's ruling AK Party.

The wolf salute is not banned in Germany.

However, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on X that "using the European Football Championship as a platform for racism is completely unacceptable".