President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan issued a message of condolences on the death of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday.

In a message he shared on Twitter, Erdoğan said he extends his condolences to the friendly people of the United Kingdom and the allied government upon the death of the queen, which he said he learned with "great sadness."

Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth died at the age of 96 on Thursday.

Buckingham Palace said she died at Balmoral Castle, her summer residence in Scotland, where members of the royal family had rushed to be by her side. The BBC played the national anthem over a portrait of the queen in full regalia.

With the death of the queen, her 73-year-old son Charles automatically becomes monarch, even though the coronation might not take place for months. It is not known whether he will choose to call himself King Charles III or some other name.

Erdoğan met the United Kingdom's Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in 2018, the last day of his three-day official visit to the U.K.