Erdoğan skipped COP26 'in protest of special treatment to India'

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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan skipped the global climate conference in Glasgow held early this month reportedly in protest of the "special treatment" provided to India. 

Heads of state and government from around the world attended the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, the COP26 summit, that began on Nov. 31 and lasted until Nov. 13. 

Erdoğan had been expected to join them in Scotland after attending the G20 summit in Rome at the weekend, but instead landed back in Turkey shortly after midnight on Nov. 1.

Erdoğan told reporters on his plane home that Ankara had made demands regarding security protocol standards for the summit in Britain which were not satisfied.

"When our demands were not met we decided not to go to Glasgow," Erdoğan said. He said that the protocol standards Ankara sought were those always implemented on his international trips.

Sources told The Times of India, however, that Erdoğan protested India for the "special treatment" provided to it. 

During the summit, the UK government has urged delegations to divide hotels. Likewise, buses were organized to take the heads of government to the conference site. However, exceptions were made for three countries – the host country, the United States and India. They were allowed to stay in hotels that they had booked exclusively for themselves, and their leaders – Boris Johnson, Joe Biden and Narendra Modi – arrived at the venue on Nov. 1 in the motorcade.

The Turkish president said on Nov. 1 he learned that the measures Turkey had sought were granted as an exception to another country, which he did not name. He said this was unacceptable. "We are obliged to protect the dignity of our nation," he said.

Sources told The Times of India that Erdoğan expressed his displeasure with the exceptions and questioned what he saw as privileged treatment of India.