During their meeting with the Turkish president

European Council President steals "Chairperson" seat

• Ursula von der Leyen stands confused, not knowing where to sit.

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• Ursula von der Leyen was outraged by her colleague Charles Michel.

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• Ursula and Charles are on their way to the joint press conference after meeting the Turkish side.

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The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was exposed to a very embarrassing situation in the Turkish capital, Ankara, when the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, sat in her seat next to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, while she remained standing waiting for him to give her the chair in vain.

Von der Leyen expressed her annoyance, which Michel had not noticed at the time.

But the European Commission president was finally forced to sit on a far couch, as the press snapped pictures of Michel and Erdogan with von der Leyen, who was visibly upset.

The main topic of the visit of Michel and von der Leyen to Turkey was to discuss the future of the refugee agreement.

This embarrassing situation coincided with a three-hour meeting with Erdogan on Tuesday, in which one of the issues raised by European Union leaders was women's rights in light of Turkey's withdrawal from an agreement on gender-based violence.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for von der Leyen explained the president's feelings on the issue of women's rights, noting that the incident had "sharpened her focus" on the issue of equal rights during the discussions that followed, and said: "Obviously the Chairperson was surprised, and this is something you can see." From the video ... the protocol level of our president is exactly the same as that of the president of the European Council. ”He adds,“ Our president is a member of the European Council in and of itself, and she usually goes to foreign countries, and she is treated the same way as the president of the European Council, ”he adds. : "The President expects that the institution she represents will be dealt with according to the required protocol. Therefore, she asked her team to take all appropriate communications to ensure that such an incident does not happen in the future."

The Spokesman also indicated that the Chairperson of the Commission took a deliberate decision to continue the meeting despite the insult.

The spokesman added that "the president's assertion was clear that she would not withdraw from the meeting, and participated in the meeting and played her full role."

"First they withdrew from the Istanbul Agreement, and now they leave the President of the European Commission without a seat on an official visit."

Shame, ”Violetta Polk, the former EU Commissioner, tweeted:“ What a diplomatic failure. ”

Neither von der Leyen nor Michel spoke about the diplomatic slip at the press conference that followed the meeting.

She said, "We came to Turkey to give our relationship a new impetus, and in this regard we held the first interesting meeting with President Erdogan."

She added that Turkey sent a "wrong signal" by leaving the Convention on the Prevention of Violence against Women signed in 2011. She also said: "I am very concerned about the fact that Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul Convention, which concerns the protection of women and the protection of children from the threat of violence."

For its part, Turkey condemned yesterday the "unfair accusations" that targeted it after the protocol incident during the visit of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to Ankara, stressing that the arrangement of the seats in question was proposed by the European side.

"The demands of the European Union have been respected," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said during a press conference.

This means that the seating arrangement was ordered by them.

The two sides of the protocol met before the meeting, and their (European Union) demands were respected. ”He added that“ the accusations against Turkey are unfair. ”

The unequal seating arrangements have prompted allegations on social media of gender discrimination or deliberate insulting of UNHCR.

Michel wrote on Facebook the day before yesterday that the situation was "regrettable," but the European Union leaders decided to focus on the substance of the meeting and not on an "accident."

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