The Eiffel Tower was illuminated in the colors of the Turkish flag on
June 12, after a social media contest on Twitter was overwhelmingly won
by Turkish football fans.
France kicked off its Euro 2016
festivities on June 9 and announced that the Eiffel Tower will be
illuminated in the flag colors of countries which gained the most
support 10 minutes after the games end.
Turkish football fans
posted tweets using the hashtag #TUR and made up 55.9 percent of the
support tweets by fans of all teams. The Eiffel Tower was illuminated in
red and white for 15 minutes and the image of the Turkish flag was also
projected onto a balloon hanging on the tower.
Turkish fans
have been in first place since the start of the social media campaign,
with 35 percent of the tweets. Britain was in second place with 12.9
percent and France third with 9.7 percent.
Turkey suffered a 1-0 defeat against Croatia in the opening Group D game on June 12.
Meanwhile,
the Eiffel Tower will be lit up late on June 13 in the rainbow colors
of the gay community in solidarity with the victims of the Orlando
shootings, Paris city hall said.
“Paris is with Orlando. Tonight, the Eiffel Tower will be illuminated in LGBT colors in homage to the victims,” Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo tweeted.