Turkey: Player makes Nazi salute in football game with Jewish school

The administration of an American high school in Istanbul "expressed regret" after a student and player of the school's football team made the Nazi salute in a game on Tuesday against a Jewish school.

It said in a post on the official Twitter account of Uskudar American Academy:

"We are in deep regret over what one of our players inappropriately did during a football game with Ulus Private Jewish School. We want to stress once again that we stand against all kinds of discrimination in accordance with our institutional philosophy of education. We immediately contacted the administrators of Ulus Private Jewish School and conveyed them our regret, and we launched an investigation into the incident."

An editor of Turkish-based Jewish media Avlaremoz (a Judeo Spanish word meaning "let us talk" in English) criticized the statement, saying:

"If the Nazi salute is defined as an inappropriate gesture, should we then say that the holocaust is some unpleasant events?"

The incident was first made public on social media, and a tweet by was viewed over 2.8 million times. It said:

"There are reports that the players of Uskudar American High School expressed their joy after scoring a goal against Ulus Jewish School by making the Nazi salute, and reportedly not a single player but several players took part."

This was followed by a tweet of the Turkish Jewish Community who said:

"We are informed about the incident, and both the administration of our school and the leadership of Turkish Jewish Community is following up on it and taking necessary steps."

A Twitter account with nearly 5,900 followers said in response to the reports of the incident:

"Oh but haven't they really cried out their eyes. And the kids didn't even insult, they did not even curse or use violence. The only thing they made was some dark humor. Even if we suppose that they really meant to literally say it, so what? There is a Nazi party in America, blockheads. There is a Nazi party even in America that waged a war against Nazis."