Name of street housing UAE Embassy in Ankara renamed after Fahreddin Pasha

The United Arab Emirates’ Embassy in Turkey’s capital Ankara has a new address evoking Turkey’s Ottoman heritage in the Middle East, including its defence of Muslim holy sites.

The move was decided last month after social media posts by Abdullah bin Zayed al Nahyan, the UAE’s foreign minister, accused Fahreddin Pasha – an Ottoman governor of Medina from 1916 to 1919 – of committing crimes against Medina’s population, including theft.

The embassy building has not moved, but the streets around it have been renamed in the wake of a row between Turkey and the UAE.

Under an Ankara Municipality decision taken in December last year, 613rd Street has been renamed Fahreddin Pasha Street and 609th Avenue in front of the embassy was also renamed Medine Mudafii (Defender of Medina) Avenue.

"As of now, the embassy's address will feature on official correspondence as Defender of Medina Street, Fahreddin Pasha Road," Mustafa Tuna, the mayor of Ankara, tweeted after the name change. "May it be beneficial."

The posts by the UAE minister drew the ire of Ankara, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his top aide Ibrahim Kalin slamming the allegations.

"Where were your ancestors when our Fahreddin Pasha was defending Medina?" Erdogan asked last month.

He added that the so-called “theft” was actually "protecting the holy relics of the Prophet Mohammad from [British] invaders."