Merkel's 'indecent proposal' to Erdogan
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's impromptu visit to Istanbul on behalf of the EU was highly criticized as a desperate gift to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as Turkey's elections draw close.
It is only a week before the snap elections and in Turkey, nobody really remembers that Germany’s Angela Merkel was in Istanbul on Oct. 18. Yet, despite their reputation in this regard, this cannot be explained by the infamously short memory of Turks.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received Merkel pompously, but their meeting was held in a former Ottoman setting in Istanbul instead of his new notorious palace in the capital, Ankara. To remind her of past Ottoman grandeur — or perhaps to remind himself that he is the heir of the glorious Ottoman sultans — Erdogan had Merkel sit next to him, each of them in gilded armchairs embellished with kitsch pseudo-imperial decorations.
That picture contrasted sharply with the plainness of Merkel's recent reception of Erdogan in Berlin, where they sat on simple chairs.
While Merkel was in my town of Istanbul, I was in her capital, Berlin. I noticed extraordinary coverage on the day of her visit, and the day after as well.
