VIDEO: Kazakh president wants Erdoğan next to Atatürk on painting

TURKISTAN

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has jokingly ordered his aides to put a drawing of Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan alongside Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Turkish Republic, on a painting in which he himself is shown as a towering figure.

On April 17, Nazarbayev hosted Erdoğan at the Ahmed Yesevi University, which was established jointly by the two states, in the western Kazakh city of Turkistan.

In the Doğan News Agency footage, Erdoğan is seen at one point citing the fact that Nazarbayev was pictured together with Atatürk on a painting at the university’s Turkish Peoples Museum.

“Put Tayyip Bey right next to Atatürk,” Nazarbayev told his aides in response, using Erdoğan’s first name and the Turkish honorific for men.



Erdoğan is seen in the footage responding to the joke by laughing, before carefully inspecting the painting.

The Turkish president then walks into the university hall where he was awarded with an honorary doctorate.

During Erdoğan’s visit, both leaders have emphasized improving cooperation between Turkey and Kazakhstan, while voicing their target of boosting the bilateral trade volume to $10 billion.