Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will not attend Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.
Turkey will be represented by Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu at the ceremony to be held on Sep. 19.
Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest serving monarch, has died at the age of 96 in Balmoral Castle in Scotland on Thursday. Ascending the throne in 1952, the Queen has reigned for 70 years. Britons will say goodbye to their queen by a state funeral which will take place at Westminster Abbey, London on Monday. Heads of states from across the world, including the US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will attend the service.
Erdogan has previously signalled that he is willing to attend the Queen’s funeral.
“I hope that if we get the opportunity, we would like to attend this ceremony,” Erdogan said on Friday.
However on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Cavusoglu said he will represent the country at the ceremony, Cumhuriyet newspaper reported.
According to the protocol rules conveyed to the foreign embassies in the United Kingdom by British Foreign Ministry on Monday, the heads of states and government to attend the funeral were asked not to use private planes and helicopters, and it was stated that buses would be used instead of official armored vehicles.
The presence of Brazil’s right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan in London would spark protests, British newspaper Daily Mail said on Wednesday.
Born on 21 April 1926, during the reign of her paternal grandfather King George V, Elizabeth II was proclaimed queen on Feb. 6, 1952 upon the death of her father King George VI who had acceded to the throne in 1936. She married Prince Philip on Nov. 20, 1947.
After the death of the Queen Elizabeth II, mother of four, her eldest child Prince Charles ascended to the throne as King Charles III.
Source:gerceknews