In today’s virtual world even a few lines on social media are enough to create a spat with geopolitical resonance. The recent tension between Turkey and the United Arab Emirates is the latest example of this.

It all began when UAE’s Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed retweeted what Twitter user Ali al-Iraqi had posted. The tweet accused Ottoman-Turkish commander Fahreddin Pasha of usurping Arab wealth by deporting and exiling the local population of Medina during World War I. He described the pasha as the forefather of today’s Turks — an implication referring to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his team. The retweet has created a massive uproar in Turkey, uniting almost every political bloc in outrage against Zayed. Erdogan and most of the opposition leaders lashed out at the UAE’s foreign minister.

The uproar has pitted Turkey against the Saudi-UAE alliance and pushed it closer to Iran while uniting the highly polarized Turkish public opinion.

If Turkey’s presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin had not responded to Zayed, the original tweet probably would not have drawn much attention. But Kalin responded by writing a highly polemical post.