Erdoğan voices disappointment over Biden's remarks, says, 'We drank tea together in the past'
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has voiced his disappointment over former U.S. Vice President and current Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's remarks on backing Turkish opposition. "We were talking and we drank tea together in the past. How can you make those comments?" Erdoğan said on Aug. 24.
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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has voiced his disappointment over former U.S. Vice President and current Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's remarks on backing Turkish opposition, saying that the two "drank tea together in the past."
"They don't hesitate to say that they will accomplish what they failed to do by coups in the past by backing the opposition. We were talking and we drank tea together in the past. How can you make those comments?" Erdoğan said on Aug. 24.
Biden's comments to New York Times editors, where he advocated a new U.S. approach to "autocrat" Erdoğan and support for opposition parties, resurfaced in a video that made him the most popular topic on Twitter in Turkey on Aug. 15.
Biden says in the video recorded on Dec. 16 2019 - before he emerged as the Democratic candidate - that he is "very concerned" about Erdoğan's approach to Kurds in Turkey, his partial military cooperation with Russia, and access to U.S. airfields in the country, a NATO ally.
Erdoğan was silent on Biden's remarks until Aug. 24.
During his speech, Erdoğan also slammed the opposition for not criticizing Biden enough and said, "The opposition preferred to ask why Biden's remarks were responded to seven months late instead."