The Barcelona defender Dani Alves was forced to backtrack over the weekend and apologise to the club’s Turkish fans for posing for a photo in which he called for recognition of the Armenian genocide.
Alves was pictured with a poster that called for recognition on Friday, 100 years to the day of what is conventionally held to be the starting date of the Armenian genocide.
He was thanked by the Armenian embassy in Spain for doing so but on Saturday the Brazilian full-back performed something of a U-turn, having met the ire of some Turkish supporters, and causing embarrassment to Barcelona, who are sponsored by Turkish Airlines.
He tweeted. “I’d like to offer my most sincere apologies to all my Turkish fans. I never thought that this photo would cause you any offence, I have a lot of friends …”.
Me gustaría pedir un millón de disculpas a todos mis fans de Turkish, jamás pensé que la foto iba a haceros daños, tengo muchos amigos......
— Daniel Alves (@DaniAlvesD2) April 25, 2015
