How a burger brand got caught in a geopolitical storm amid Turkey-Saudi Arabia tensions

As trade tensions rise between Ankara and Riyadh, fast food chain Herfy said that it was replacing its ‘Turkish Burger’ with an identical ‘Greek burger’

Over the past two weeks a series of Saudi businesses announced that they’d stop carrying products from Turkey

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Herfy’s Turkish Burger. Photo: Herfy website

Published: 4:13pm, 23 Oct 2020Updated: 4:13pm, 23 Oct 2020

Not much was Turkish about Herfy’s “Turkish Burger” besides the branding – an Ottoman fez over a black moustache – but that didn’t stop the sandwich from getting caught up in a geopolitical storm.

This week, as tensions rose between Ankara and Riyadh, the Saudi fast food chain announced that it was replacing the beef patty with an identical “Greek burger,” slashing the price to boot.

“It’s the same thing,” Herfy employee Mahmood Bassyoni reassured a customer with a smile, offering a spoonful of the burger’s spicy sauce to taste. “Just the name changed.”

The sudden menu overhaul is a sign of how swiftly a political disagreement between the two regional powers is deteriorating into a battle over trade that’s hitting global brands like Mango.

Already-strained relations between the countries worsened after the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi leadership, at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul. Then, this month, after two years of simmering discontent, they dived again.

Turkish businessmen said that Saudi Arabia was hindering the entrance of their goods, a claim the Saudi government denies.