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A section of Turkey’s fans decided to boo the scheduled pre-match minute’s silence before the country’s international friendly match against Greece in Istanbul on Tuesday night.

The two sides played out a forgettable 0-0 draw but the main talking point came before a ball was kicked as loud jeering, whistling and booing was clearly picked up by TV cameras as both sets of players stood solemnly in the centre circle.

The above video, which emerged on Twitter last night, appears to show sections of the crowd inside the Basaksehir Fatih Terim Stadium refusing to honour the 129 victims were killed in last Friday’s horrific events in Paris.




Some reports are suggesting that through the boos and jeers the chants of ‘Allahu Akbar’ – the Islamic phrase meaning ‘God is greater’ – could be heard coming from the stands during the proposed silence.

Greece’s players observe a minute of silence for the Paris terror attack victims (Picture: EPA)

Turkey’s fans cheer for their team during the friendly (Picture: Getty)

Turkey’s players observe a minute of silence to honour the victims of the Paris attacks (Picture: Getty)

Some Turkey fans could be heard booing during the silence (Picture: Getty)

‘Our fans should have behaved during the national anthems and during the one minute silence,’ Turkey manager Fatih Terim said after the match.

‘Greece is our neighbour. Today is world neighbours day, but our fans didn’t behave like neighbours in this match.’

Some reports on social media are suggesting that the decision Turkish fans took to boo the minute’s silence was not aimed at disrespecting the innocent deaths in Paris – but a pre-planned show of dissatisfaction at the hypocrisy in such situations.

Turkish supporters are unhappy that a silence wan’t held for the 100 people killed during the Ankara terror attack in October when two bomb explosions were set off outside the Ankara Central railway station.

‘They were booing as there was no minute silence when Isis blew up Turkish people a few weeks ago,’ Laura Townson commented on Facebook.

Mohamed El-Hami said: ‘They were upset because there were mass killing by ISIL and Kurdish army and lots of deaths in turkey and no country or football team or fans in Europe stood a silence minute for their victims. While Gemma Docherty added ‘they were booing western hypocrisy not condoning the deaths in Paris.’

Turkey qualified in third place in their group and will be heading to Euro 2016 in France next summer.