What was Obama’s ‘seating’ message?

“World leader” Recep Tayyip Erdoğan did not attend the banquet held by U.S. President Barack Obama for the heads of states and governments in New York, because he protested where he was seated.

According to what the pro-government “pool” media has reported, the reason for that was he was seated at the same table with the Egyptian President, coup leader Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Erdoğan was indeed upset; he sent the message, “Look Obama, if you do not change my seat, I will not attend this dinner.”

Because Obama was not aware that this came from a world leader, he did not pay any attention. He did not change Erdoğan’s or el-Sisi’s place.

The pool media is now using this incident as proof showing what kind of a strong world leader Erdoğan is. They do not ever think about asking questions, because they lost this habit a long time ago. I wonder, what kind of a message Obama and the U.S. administration wanted to give by putting Erdoğan and el-Sisi at the same table?

Did it mean “Stop bickering with each other and reconcile; I need you together in the Middle East?”
When the U.S. Department of State learned of Erdoğan’s protest, why didn’t they consider placing Erdoğan or el-Sisi at another table, but preferred to give the message to Erdoğan “It is up to you, sir, whether you attend or not?”

Was this aimed to mean, “If you go your way, then you will stay alone in your hotel and eat your sandwich?”

We know it will not take much time for us to get our answers, because we have many examples of Erdoğan speaking like this today, but acting much differently tomorrow.

It’s the consistency that counts 

President Erdoğan did not attend the dinner because he was seated at the same table with coup leader el-Sisi and he said the following to the Davos summit attendees in Istanbul:

“If I believe in democracy as Tayyip Erdoğan, I will not be in the same frame with those who came to power through anti-democratic means.”

How nice, isn’t it? What about consistency? Look at this:

General Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, president of Sudan; he is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide. If he visits a civilized country, he will be caught and taken to court. He is held responsible of the ethnic cleansing that caused the death of more than 300,000 civilians and 2,700,000 people fleeing their countries.

His only friend in this world is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan! They are extremely fond of each other.

This manslayer dictator was a member of the junta that toppled the Sadiq al-Mahdi government who had come to power in 1989 through democratic elections. The junta disbanded itself in 1993 and then-President al-Bashir started his crimes against humanity.

General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s former president: This guy, who is held responsible from the Benazir Bhutto assassination, staged a military coup in 1999 and toppled the Nawaz Sharif government that had come to power by elections.

When he was in power, he was Erdoğan’s best buddy, so much so as to be a “witness” to his daughter Esra Erdoğan’s wedding to Berat Albayrak.

The Erdoğan and Musharraf friendship continued after 2008, when he left his position as the president.
We know that from the fact that they met in private during Musharraf’s Turkey visit.

What is it then, let’s repeat all together: “Recep Tayyip Erdoğan cannot be in the same frame with those who have come to power through anti-democratic means.”