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 Turkish EU affairs minister Omer Celik, 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 machine in his household but several Turkish brands in household goods have broken into the international market in recent years.
As another example of the strong relationship, Johnson said Turkey every year receives 2.5 million British tourists.
“It’s an extraordinary act of kindness, if I may say,” he said with typical humour. “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 magazine The Spectator, aimed at demonstrating free speech to Ankara.
The limerick, published by the Spectator as a rebuff to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s efforts to prosecute a German comedian’s 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 European Union 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 Celik were both descendants of Ottomans, is due to meet Erdoğan in Ankara on Tuesday.
Boris Johnson lauds his Turkish washing machine on first visit to Ankara
27 September 2016
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Months after winning a competition for an offensive poem about the Turkish head of state, British foreign secretary Boris Johnson was on a mission to re-build bridges during his first official visit to Ankara.
