Turkey blames ‘sofagate’ on EU and denies snub to Ursula von der Leyen

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrives for a joint news conference after talks with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in Ankara (Burhan Ozbilici/AP)

Turkey strongly rejected accusations that it snubbed Ursula von der Leyen, one of the European Union’s most powerful executives, because of her gender, insisting that the EU’s own protocol requests were applied during a meeting at the Turkish presidential palace.

Ms von der Leyen, the European Commission president, and European Council chief Charles Michel met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks on Turkey-EU relations on Tuesday.