Was the recent U.S.-Turkey summit meeting between President
Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan a success? Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu apparently doesn't think so, because he fired
Ambassador Nabi Sensoy this week.
According to a fascinating
article in today's Hurriyet Daily
News, Sensoy, a veteran diplomat, was either unwilling or unable to get
Davutoglu into the meeting with Obama, blowing the foreign minister's chance to
have some face time with the president. So he had to go.
The recounting of the episode, if accurate, shows just how
much foreign dignitaries depend on their Washington representatives to get them
access to the White House, while simultaneously not understanding the
complexities of such arrangements. In this case, the foreign minister
apparently asked to sit in on the Obama meeting at the last minute and the
ambassador knew it would be improper to ask because his counterpart Hillary Clinton would not be in the
room.
Some juicy details:
Behind the scenes, Sensoy's
resignation reportedly came after an argument with Davutoglu, who was offended
because he was excluded from the Erdogan-Obama meeting in the White House. The
foreign minister is said to have accused Sensoy of not fulfilling the request
from Ankara that Davutoglu be part of the meeting.
Well-placed sources said Davutoglu had requested
that the White House meeting be in a four-way format known in diplomatic jargon
as "one plus one," which includes two countries' leaders and foreign ministers,
and told the ambassador to convey that request to the U.S. administration.
The meeting in Washington, however, did not take
place in the expected format. The exclusion of foreign ministers from
Obama-Erdogan meeting led to an argument between the ambassador and Davutoglu,
who asked Sensoy why the meeting was not held in the four-way format. Davutoglu
noted that the meeting in Ankara during Obama's first overseas trip in April
included the foreign ministers, the Daily News has learned.
According to sources, Sensoy told the minister that
the request could not be conveyed and said, "You can dismiss me if you like."
Nice.
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