'Diplomatic fiasco' during EU presidents' trip to Turkey

EU leaders were left embarrassed when Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen was relegated to a sofa during a meeting with Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Tuesday, while her Council counterpart Charles Michel was allowed to sit at the president’s side.

Mrs von der Leyen and the former Belgian prime minister Mr Michel met Mr Erdogan to discuss the EU’s refugee deal and Turkey’s relationship with Brussels, but the optics of their meeting are now the only thing anyone is talking about.

During the meeting of the three leaders, Mrs von der Leyen - the first female president of the Commission - was left visibly perplexed as Mr Michel and Mr Erdogan took the only two chairs available in the centre of the room.

Erm !

That's equality Ursula , first to the seat gets the seat.


I'm no fan of the uncollected , shoe horned in by Merkel , Ursula von der Leyen and even less so for her shameful pettiness against the UK through the vaccination program , all the better then to see her publicly humiliated and relegated to the sofa in front of the Worlds press.

a reply to: gortex

Did she get asked to make sandwiches?

a reply to: gortex

Turkey respekts wahmen.

Oooh here comes the incel crowd...gonna get me popcorn.
Ladies are bad..M'kay.

a reply to: Hecate666

Well to Muslims and Asians....

BLM / Antifa / SJW / Turd Wave Feminist


Looks like yall are needed in Turkey should I start a go fund me or nah?

a reply to: gortex
I was trying to follow the mechanics of the seating arrangement in the video, and it looks casual and unpremeditated.
As far as I can tell, they were standing in a semi-circle and then asked to sit down. The two men found themselves standing in front of two seats and promptly sat on them. That left the lady standing, like the slow runner in a game of musical chairs.

Even if it was just lack of forethought, the lack of forethought is certainly unusual in modern summit diplomacy, which puts a high value on presenting the right images to the camera.
For that matter, old-fashioned western courtesy might have prompted the western gentleman to allow the lady to sit first, or at least to offer her his seat. But he could have argued that he thought the sofa was more comfortable, and they were being polite by allowing her to occupy it.

a reply to: DISRAELI

I bet they set up it all up in advance tbh.

2 chairs for 3 people.

Let the power struggle ensue.

And her commanding "ERM" didn't do much for her lol.

a reply to: Lysergic
From my memories of musical chairs, the cunning tactic was to keep a hand on one chair until the next one in line was securely vacated. The other two were obviously more experienced players.

But she wasn't the only one sitting on a couch. Who was the 4th person, the guy sitting on the other couch across from her (right side of the vid)?





eta:
a reply to: DISRAELI

Thank you. I was sitting here trying to remember what that dam game was called... 'Musical Chairs'

a reply to: gortex

My advice (ha! Like anyone cares).
Do NOT play the stupid stupid woke game.....

Option a.) Get a chair. Thus belittling the strong, independent woman with your display of misogyny.

Option b.) Don't get a chair. Thus belittling the strong, independent woman with your display of misogyny.

That's how this game works.

Sod the media and their fakery.

Apparently the whole world is ran by a bunch of adults with the mindset of 5 year olds. Who gives a flying # where any of them sat.

We live in a society full of idiots, when the woman went "erm..." and somehow it went viral. For all we know, when she sat down it yanked out one of her pubic hairs and thus "erm..."

They all looked properly socially distanced while sitting? I thought that was the important part?

And... the lady was not properly socially distanced when walking with the two men. And the lady seemed oblivious to how the room was set up for the media event.

Diplomatic fiasco really? If this is a "fiasco" it's because the left thinks that can send a few messages on social media and it's gonna change 500-year-old cultural norms for Turkey. Quit being so sensitive, there was nothing wrong people are acting like she was forced to sit on the floor at his feet.

a reply to: putnam6

The fiasco part for me is that the meeting itself may have some important implications for the refugees, the people of Europe and Turkey.
But the Telegraph is concerned with seating arrangements!

Just remember that the Telegraph is still printing next time there's a run on toilet paper.

What goes around...

a reply to: Tulpa

Sod the media and their fakery.

Italian PM Mario Draghi lays the blame with the culprit not the messenger , Charles Michel also played his part.

On Thursday Draghi told reporters: “I absolutely do not agree with Erdoğan’s behavior towards president Von der Leyen … I think it was not appropriate behavior and I was very sorry for the humiliation Von der Leyen had to suffer.”

He added: “With these, let’s call them what they are – dictators – with whom one nonetheless has to coordinate, one has to be frank when expressing different visions and opinions.”

Soon after, the Italian ambassador to Ankara was summoned to the foreign ministry, Turkey’s state-owned Anadolu news agency reported, and foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu slammed the remarks.
www.theguardian.com...

But yeah , blame the media it's fashionable.

a reply to: gortex

It's more fashionable to focus on identity politics and, yes ,the media help that agenda just fine.
There's many more things that we could criticise Erdogan for and his treatment of women isn't high on the list.
I've no real sympathy for any of these power mad loonies.
They all play silly power games and some they win, some they lose.
But we are the ultimate losers whichever side you choose to support.

All those at the meeting have probably screwed over many, many ordinary people for their own megalomaniac reasons.
If they're rude or offensive to each other it's no more than they deserve.