Furious over a picture

Who says football and politics are not related together? While the first party is complaining that it help gaining political points in a upcoming elections of the other country, the other one is responding that is not related to anything and it says has nothing to do with the voting process. And all this fuss is because of one single picture.
It is widely known that relations between Germany and Turkey are not very good at the moment. They accuse one another, when last Monday couple of German players are photographed with the Turkish president (of the country): Mesut Ozil and Ilkay Gundogan who met and pictured themselves with Recep Tayyip Erdogan. To 'spice' things up a little, the second player also showed a t-shirt which was written 'With respect for my president'. Cenk Tosun have also joined the gathering.
One of the critics was the premier of Baden-Wurttemberg region Winfried Kretschmann which 'remind these two footballers who their president is', while some officials from the German association were also irritated about this issue as well. The other side did not wait much for the reply. Senior adviser of the president Yasin Aktay speaking for the media who, among other things, replied: 'Conversely, German officials and politicians condemn Turkish-German football players for posing in photos with their president as a result of nothing but natural emotions.'

And to calm things down, couple of days ago the above first 2 players have met the current president from the other side (Germany), Frank-Walter Steinmeier who posted a picture with them in social media.