Turkish president mocked for adopting 'Lord of the Rings'-like costumes for palace guards
Spear-carrying guardsmen, warriors bedecked in chain mail, and even a few fake moustaches - Turkey’s president has spared nothing in a dramatic remake of his palace ceremonial guard.
Spear-carrying guardsmen, warriors bedecked in chain mail, gleaming golden helmets and even a few fake moustaches thrown in for good measure - Turkey’s president has spared nothing in a dramatic remake of his palace ceremonial guard.
On Monday, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas could have been forgiven for thinking he had walked onto the scene of a historical costume drama or far-fetched ballet as he arrived for talks in Ankara with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
As Abbas shook hands with Erdogan, the main staircase of the Turkish leader’s controversial new presidential palace was occupied by 16 warriors dressed in period armour, carrying spears, shields and clutching fearsome-looking swords.
Some of the costumes did not look entirely convincing and the scene was rapidly mocked on social media, with bloggers tweeting photo-shopped pictures purporting to show Erdogan surrounded by Star Wars or Lord of the Rings characters in place of the warriors.
The official Anatolia news agency later explained that the 16 warriors each represented one of the 16 empires of Turkish history, dating back to well before the Turkic conquest of Asia Minor, where modern-day Turkey is located.
These past chapters of Turkic history include the great Hunnic empire founded around 200BC though to the Seljuk Empire, the Mughal Empire, and right up to the Ottoman Empire that was dissolved in the 1920s with the foundation of the Turkish republic.