Jeff Flake will be a no-show at Tuesday’s iftar dinner hosted by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at his ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) headquarters for ambassadors in Türkiye. Though the Embassy told the Sabah newspaper that Flake’s daily schedule was planned before the invitation and he was supposed to attend a pre-scheduled event elsewhere, Flake’s absence comes two days after Erdoğan harshly criticized him.
The ambassador’s meeting with main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who runs against Erdoğan in May 14 elections, angered the Turkish leader.
“Joe Biden spoke, and now you see what his ambassador here does,” Erdoğan told an audience during a visit to the Idealists’ Club in Istanbul, an affiliate of his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). “He visited (Kılıçdaroğlu). It is a shame. You are an ambassador, and you have to know how to act. You should be engaged with the President (not Kılıçdaroğlu),” he said. “I wonder if he will be ashamed to ask for an appointment at my office. But I tell him now. Our doors are closed to him from now on because he does not know his place. You should know how an ambassador should act,” Erdoğan said.
The Embassy said their diplomatic mission in Türkiye would be duly represented at the dinner. The ambassador felt sorry for not being able to attend the dinner as he would not be in Ankara on Tuesday.
