Months after winning a competition for an offensive poem about the Turkish head of state, the British foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, was on a mission to rebuild bridges during his first official visit to Ankara.
But in typical style, Johnson eschewed the usually staid diplomatic discourse and went his own way, praising the nation for producing his “beautiful, very well-functioning Turkish washing machine”.
Speaking at a news conference in Ankara alongside the Turkish EU affairs minister, Ömer Çelik, Johnson talked up the relationship between the two nations as crucial, even after Britain’s vote to leave the EU.
“We are lucky in the United Kingdom to be one of the biggest recipients of Turkish goods,” said the former mayor of London, who has Turkish ancestry.
“I am certainly the proud possessor of a beautiful, very well-functioning Turkish washing machine,” he said. Johnson did not reveal the brand of the much-loved appliance but several Turkish household goods brands have broken into the international market in recent years.
As another example of the strong relationship between the countries, Johnson said Turkey every year receives 2.5 million British tourists.
“It’s an extraordinary act of kindness, if I may say,” he said. “I hope they (the tourists) behave themselves ... well ... I am sure they do.”
Johnson had in May penned the winning entry in a competition on offensive poetry about President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, published by the conservative British title The Spectator, aimed at demonstrating free speech to Ankara.
The limerick, published as a rebuff to Erdoğan’s efforts to prosecute a German comedian over an offensive poem, included a line about about the Turkish president having sex with a goat and also called the president a “wankerer”.
It was published during the campaign in the referendum for Britain to leave the EU, which Johnson helped to lead and eventually win. Turkish officials at the time played down any damage in the two countries’ relationship, saying British-Turkish ties were too important to be hostage to such statements.
Johnson, who joked that he and Çelik were both descendants of Ottomans, is due to meet Erdoğan in Ankara on Tuesday.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report