Boris Johnson's Trip To Turkey Was Super Awkward And Here Are The Pictures To Prove It
It was fine. Fine. Nobody brought up that poem he wrote about Turkey's president banging a goat. FINE.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is on his first official trip to Turkey as the UK's top diplomat, a time where he most certainly didn't bring up a bawdy poem he wrote about Turkey's president.
It involved a goat, President Recep Erdogan, and we leave the rest to your imagination. (Or just read it.)
See, Erdogan probably doesn't even remember it — just look at the ease at which they sit together in this photo from Tuesday.
Water under the bridge. Or goat. Whatever.
Erdogan did, though, give Johnson a replica of a document signed by Ottoman Sultan Abdulaziz Khan, the first Sultan to travel to Western Europe, so that's nice!
Johnson also spent time with other Turkish officials, observing damage the parliament in Ankara took during the coup attempt in July.
And here's Johnson sitting uncomfortably close to Turkish EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik, where he stressed that the UK supports Turkey joining the European Union...
...but as you MAY RECALL, Secretary Johnson was very much in favor of Britain doing just the opposite.
Boris's history with Turkey and the EU is an interesting one: A large part of the Leave campaign consisted of playing off of people's fears of Turkish entry into the EU — something that Boris, who is actually the great-grandson of a Turkish official in the Ottoman Empire, has long been in favor of.
But it's cool, because Johnson wants Turkey and the EU to forge a huge post-Brexit trade deal. To hammer that point home, he bragged about his Turkish washing machine.
Not a metaphor! “We are lucky in the United Kingdom to be one of the biggest recipients of Turkish goods,” he said speaking next to Celik. “I am certainly the proud possessor of a beautiful, very well-functioning Turkish washing machine.”
He also took time to visit a refugee camp, where he rolled very, very deep to watch kids click things on computer screens.
So, overall, that could have gone much, much worse.
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Hayes Brown is a world news editor and reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York.
Contact Hayes Brown at hayes.brown@buzzfeed.com.
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