US spokesperson ‘surprised’ over continued interest around Ankara Mayor’s remarks

“I’m surprised anyone even there [in Turkey] would still even care about it. I doubt it, honestly,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Marie Harf said May 11 when responding to a journalist’s question during a daily briefing in Washington, DC.

“Come on blonde, answer now,” Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek tweeted early April 29. The tweet also included an image from the riots in Baltimore, as well as the photo of Harf with a caption that read: “Where are you stupid blonde, who accused Turkish police of using disproportionate force [during the Gezi Park protests in 2013]?”

Harf’s May 11 briefing focused on U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s trip to Russia and an upcoming NATO ministerial meeting in Turkey.

After the question about the Ankara mayor came, Harf also said, “We’re going to meet with our NATO allies. I don’t think that the mayor of Ankara is part of that discussion. It’s really at a different level.”

Harf had initially declined to comment on Gökçek’s remarks. “I really don’t think I’m going to dignify them with a response,” she said April 29.

Wading into the dispute, U.S. Ambassador to Ankara John Bass posted a photo-shopped blonde-haired picture of himself on Instagram May 1 with the caption, “American Diplomats: We Are All Blonde.”