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Malek Helali & QNA
Doha
TWITTER users from Qatar participated in a trending Arabic hashtag welcoming Turkish military troops to the country in what they considered as a strong act of support for Qatar during the ongoing GCC crisis.
Qataris expressed their gratefulness to Turkish people and their government for their continuous efforts in backing them during this difficult moment that, according to them, revealed Qatar's true friends and unveiled the masks of its enemies.
Tweets in Arabic and Turkish under the hashtag ranged from messages of warm greetings to the Turkish soldiers to expression of deep gratefulness to the Turkish people for joining the Twitter campaigns and hashtags that were trending in Turkey expressing support for Qatar and condemning the decisions of the three GCC countries that cut ties with it for what they described as false accusations.
"Greetings to the Islamic army, the decedents of the Ottomans and Ertugrul","Real men reveal themselves at times of crisis, and the Turkish people confirmed this", were some of the messages that Qataris delivered to their brothers in Turkey.
Twitter users also praised the Turkish government's immediate support by shipping large supplies of Turkish food products to Qatar in less than 24 hours from the announcement of closing Saudi borders and food supplies to Qatar.
Meanwhile, a number of Turkish activists launched a Twitter campaign on the social networking site under the hashtag"Qatar is not alone" to become number one in Turkey in less than three hours until Thursday (midnight, Turkey's local time). The Turkish Anadolu Agency (AA) reported that although the hashtag was in Turkish, many of the Twitter users expressed their support in both Arabic and English. Most of the tweets denied Qatar's support for terrorism.
Moreover, Turkish citizens and representatives of Arab communities residing in Istanbul on Wednesday night held a demonstration in support of Qatar.
A group of Arab and Turkish activists holding the name"Group of Friends of Qatar"organised the event under the theme"Qatar is not alone". The participants came to Taksim in central Istanbul to affirm their solidarity with their Qatari brothers and sisters.
