COPENHAGEN, Denmark — I was invited this week with a select group of journalists, including the editors in chief of major Turkish dailies, to accompany President Abdullah Gul on his official visit to Denmark. The occasion provided us with a firsthand opportunity to see just how disturbed President Abdullah Gul is over political developments in Turkey.

One also got the distinct impression, from his repeated emphasis of the need for Turkey to return to the EU path, and to institute European standard legal reforms, that he regrets having been forced by circumstance to sign antidemocratic legislation introduced recently by the government.

During our exclusive discussion with him, Gul also rejected repeated claims by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) — of which he is a founding member — that they are faced with a foreign-led conspiracy to undermine them. Gul remarked that such claims put Turkey in the league of third world countries.

Asked about the highly acrimonious current political environment in Turkey, Gul said he was greatly disturbed and saddened over this situation, which clearly no one can be pleased about. He said the images coming out of Turkey these days, with massive rival funerals, was reminiscent of the “old Turkey.”