'Taken aback': EU Chief left awkwardly standing at Turkey meet as male counterparts sit

During their Ankara visit, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was taken aback to find her fellow top EU Official taking the only chair available next to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. A video that has taken the internet by storm shows how Von der Leyen, who is the EU’s most powerful executive, was treated like a second-rank official in Ankara. In the clip, one can see Von der Leyen, European Council chief Charles Michel and the Turkish President entering a big room, where only two chairs had been laid out in front of the EU and the Turkish flags for the three leaders. 

The clip shows Michel and Erdogan taking the chairs as Von der Leyen stood looking at both the men, expressing her astonishment with a “ehm” and a gesture of disappointment. She then can be seen eventually sitting on a large sofa, away from her male counterparts. According to Associated Press, the meeting between the three leaders lasted more than two hours and a half. 

Following the meeting, Von der Leyen’s spokesman Eric Mamer said, “Von der Leyen was surprised by the arrangements”. Mamer said, “The important thing is that the president should have been seated exactly in the same manner as the president of the European council and the Turkish president”. 

He added, “She decided to proceed nevertheless, prioritizing substance over protocol, but nevertheless let me stress that the president expects that the institution that she represents to be treated with the required protocol, and she has therefore asked her team to take all appropriate contacts in order to ensure that such an incident does not occur in the future”. 

Further, while the Turkish ministry did not comment on the incident, Michel said that the embarrassment was the result of the “strict interpretation” by Turkish services of protocol rules. He regretted the “differentiated, even diminished, treatment of the president of the European Commission”. In a statement, he said that although TV images could have given the impression he was “insensitive” to Von der Leyen’s uncomfortable situation, “noting could be further from reality, nor from his deepest feelings”. 

‘It wasn’t a coincidence…’ 

After the video had gone viral on social media, the diplomatic incident was abundantly commented on several platforms. European lawmaker Sophie in ’t Veld posted pictures of previous meetings between Michel’s and Von der Leyen’s predecessors with Erdogan, with the trio of men sitting in chairs next to each other. Sergey Lagodinsky, another member of the European Parliament, also shared the clip and used #GiveHerASeat in his caption, along with #womensrights. 

(Image: @AcarUmut/Twitter)