British foreign minister Boris Johnson began a key visit to Turkey on Monday, months after he led the successful “Brexit” campaign that played on anti-Turkish sentiments.
The trip by Johnson, who also won a prize for a rude poem about President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in May, is the first visit by a top level British official since the failed coup in July that aimed to overthrow the Turkish strongman.
Campaigners for Britain to leave the EU in the June 23 vote repeatedly raised the spectre of millions of Turks being free to live in Britain as a reason to pull out of the 28-nation bloc.
Former London mayor Johnson risked further Turkish ire in May when he won a British competition calling for rude verse about Erdogan, organised in solidarity with a German comedian facing prosecution for doing the same.
Turkish officials have played down possible setback in the two countries’ relationship, saying British-Turkish ties are too important to be hostage to Johnson’s statements.
A spokesperson for the British embassy in Ankara told AFP that Johnson had arrived in Turkey, where he is to meet Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, as well as Syrian opposition groups.
He is also due to visit the Turkish parliament in the capital Ankara which was extensively damaged by airstrikes on the night of the failed July 15 coup, Turkish officials said.
Johnson has made headlines in Turkish media because of his Turkish great-grandfather Ali Kemal, who was a politician and a journalist in the 1900s.
Turkey’s relations with Europe has soured after the coup attempt, amid concerns over Ankara’s subsequent crackdown on alleged coup plotters.
Turkey has angrily rejected the criticism that the vast purge might breach rights norms Ankara must meet for accession into the European Union.
Source: AFP
