Erdogan’s macho protocol: he unleashed the president of the European Commission who ended up teaching him a lesson

Shame. It is the word which accompanies and is repeated during these hours the images which arrive Ankara, turkey, where the contempt that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan offered to the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. With far from normal protocol, the head of the Turkish regime chose to sit next to him an officer of the same rank as the German and her in an isolated chair, considered a voluntarily macho act.

“The President (von der Leyen) was clearly shocked, and it can be seen in the video, but let me clarify that, shocked as she may have been, she chose – and I think it was the right approach – to prioritize substance. questions of form or protocol, and that is certainly what European citizens would have expected from him. It is not my job to judge what is behind the fact that we are offering you one type of seat over another.“, Indicated Eric Mamer, spokesperson for the European Commission.

The Turkish government did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the news agency. Reuters. Some time ago, during another meeting, they provided three presidents during the Turkish President’s visit to Brussels to meet with the heads of the Commission and the European Council, which collectively represent the 27 member states of the bloc.

My sea he said that von der Leyen decided to focus on substance rather than form and in the conversation she mentioned women’s rights and the Istanbul Convention on Violence Against Women, from which turkey he retired last month.

The spokesperson stressed that the event served to von der Leyen insist on “Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention and women’s rights. The President of the Commission discussed at length all areas of cooperation with Turkey and was able to express himself in depth during the conversation. The best answer you can give in these cases is what she did: stay in the meeting and participate with her lead role.“.

The links between Brussels and Ankara have tightened since a 2016 coup attempt sparked a crackdown on civil rights turkey, but now they’re trying a cautious approach. It is for this reason that the representatives of the European Union they met on Tuesday with Erdogan, shortly afterwards, he offered gestures of conciliation and EU agreed to increase trade and cooperation on migration issues with Ankara.

The visit of the president of the European Commission and the president of the European Council Charles Michel occurs shortly after the leaders of the EU agreed to offer incentives to turkey Despite the country’s setbacks in terms of democracy, human rights and maritime conflicts Mediterranean for the energy issue.

Among the items on the agenda are the Turkish demands EU does more to support millions of Syrian refugees arriving in Turkey, that a customs pact be updated and that visa requirements for Turks in the EU be made more flexible. Officially, turkey You are still a candidate for EU membership, but your application is pending.

The conciliatory gestures of Erdogan occur after an increase in tensions last year due to the decision to turkey refrain from stopping the passage of migrants for Greece and sending ships into waters that claim Greece and Cyprus. The EU said last month that it was ready to “dialogue with Turkey in a progressive, proportional and reversible manner to strengthen cooperation on various issues of common interest“.

The bloc said it was ready to strengthen an agreement signed in 2016 according to which turkey it must try to prevent migrants from entering Europe in exchange for aid and other types of cooperation. In addition, the European Commission has been tasked with studying ways to financially assist the 4 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, as well as those from Jordan and the Lebanon.

The pact between the EU and Turkey reduced the flow of migrants to the Greek islands, located near the west coast of Turkey. As part of the deal, the EU offered Ankara 6 billion euros ($ 7.1 billion) in refugee aid and other incentives to prevent more people from leaving Turkey for the Europe.

(With information from Reuters and AP) .-

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