For John, BLUF: When seeking favors from a nation one should be careful not to insult their leaders at the same time. Nothing to see here; just move along.
MSN says that the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is unhappy with an interview Vice President Joe Biden gave while he (Biden) was visiting Harvard's Kennedy School. President Erdogan is demanding an apology from Vice President Biden.♠ Incidentally, Turkish President Erdogan was in the United States for the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters. He spoke during the session.
But, to the article:
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday demanded an apology from U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and warned he would become "history for me" over comments in which he said the Turkish leader had admitted that Turkey had made mistakes by allowing foreign fighters to cross into Syria.I think the Vice President is just unlucky. While he described the situation accurately, his remarks were infelicitous.Erdogan denied ever saying that and told reporters in Istanbul that Biden "will be history for me if he has indeed used such expressions."
Responding to questions following his speech at the Harvard Kennedy School on Thursday, Biden described Erdogan as "an old friend." Biden added: "He (Erdogan) said: 'You were right. We let too many people through.' Now they're trying to seal their border."
Regards — Cliff
♠ Appears he got it.
1 comment:
Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in a most difficult position and has all my support. To survive politically he cannot remain unmoved and he cannot remain not unmoved. In summary, he must wander the desert sands leaving only a nomad's footprints; be able to stride democratic halls of justice effortlessly; and, walk upon the Mediterranean waters round the Four Horns of Greece. He knows that at some point, sooner or later, ISIS will seek to topple Turkey wanting her men and supplies.
Here is an old school rhyme I used to sing as a child, "Hungary was chasing Turkey, slipped on Greece and broke China." As a child I always thought it meant that if you were too hungry to eat your portion of the turkey dinner you would slip up somehow and break the dishes of food you were carrying to the Thanksgiving Day table. Grown I see the conflicting racial and religious confluences or conflicts implied in the rhyme.
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