TURKISH GOVERNMENT REJECTS: CHIRAC NEVER HINTED ERDOGAN NOT TO TAKE WIFE TO FRANCE

Panorama.am
14:43 10/02/2010

Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz
Baykal claimed yesterday that French President Nicolas Sarkozy asked
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan not to take his wife to
France during an official visit due to her attire [headscarf].

Later Baykal’s press office clarified Baykal had made a mistake and
it went about not the French President-in-office Sarkozy but former
President Jacques Chirac.

According to Turkish Zaman, Turkey’s government has spread an official
message claiming Baykal’s statement has nothing to do with the reality.

Turkish Embassy to France also rejected the information. The Ambassador
recalled that President Gul and PM Erdogan took their wives to France
on their recent visits.