I would still have photographed with Erdoğan, says footballer Mesut Özil

Mesut Özil, a football player for Germany of Turkish descent, has broken his silence and formally responded to the media after he was accused of making a political statement by photographing with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan before the country’s elections, which were held on June 24.

Posting a statement on his Instagram account on Sunday, Özil wrote, “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. I have two hearts, one German and one Turkish. During my childhood, my mother taught me to always be respectful and to never forget where I came from, and these are still values that I think about to this day.”

“As I said, my mother has never let me lose sight of my ancestry, heritage and family traditions. For me, having a picture with President Erdoğan wasn’t about politics or elections, it was about me respecting the highest office of my family’s country.”

German players with Turkish roots, İlkay Gündoğan and Mesut Özil, met with Erdoğan while he was in London in mid-May. The duo gifted their autographed jerseys to Erdogan.

“Whatever the outcome would’ve been in this previous election, or the election before that, I would have still taken the picture,” he concluded.

Erdoğan won an absolute majority in the presidential election with 52.5 percent of the vote, according to Turkey’s Supreme Election Council (YSK).