Question: Can you — I realize some of this has been talked about at the White House briefing already, but can you explain from the State Department point of view why the administration felt it was necessary for the vice president to apologize to Turkey and semi-apologize to the UAE [United Arab Emirates], and whether he has plans to apologize to anybody else? There’s a long list of countries out there that I think may feel may have — may have felt slighted.
Jen Psaki: Well, I think my White House colleagues have already addressed this, as you noted in your question. And as you also I’m sure have seen, there have been readouts of those calls describing the specifics of the conversations. I think they described it more as clarifying recent remarks. Obviously, we have important relationships with a number of these countries and want to work on how we can work together moving forward on the international coalition, and I think that’s probably why that decision was made.
That was how the briefing of State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki began on Oct. 6. The issue of Vice President Joe Biden’s apology to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been occupying the Turkish media and public opinion since Oct. 4. The supporters of Erdogan were in a triumphant mood since late Oct. 4 when the news of Biden's apology reached Turkey. Nearly all the TV channels informed their viewers, continuously, with the caption “Breaking News.”
The ruling party and the government tried to capitalize on the apology as a public relations triumph, a repetition of the Davos diatribe between Erdogan and Israel’s then-President Shimon Peres. In Davos at a panel on Jan. 29, 2009, Erdogan, saying “one minute” in English and taking the floor once again to respond to Peres, had made a very harsh statement against the Israeli leader and left the stage and Davos to be given a hero’s welcome back in Istanbul, where thousands of people gathered at the airport to welcome him. That incident was considered to be Erdogan’s rise in the skies of the Arab-Muslim world and his — at least for a while — being the darling of the Arab street.
AL-MONITOR All-Access gives you unlimited access to all our journalism, the full Daily Briefing, exclusive interviews, premium newsletters, and live events — for less than $2/week.
