MHP delegate mocks presidential 'Jesters' dress show `inaccurate` and `rag-tag' - "They resembled morning gowns"

MHP delegate mocks presidential 'Jesters' dress show `inaccurate` and `rag-tag' - "They resembled morning gowns". (Bugun).

“They resembled morning gowns,” is how history professor and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Yusuf Halaçoğlu describes the guards lined up for President Erdoğan’s reception of Mahmut Abbas.

“Furthermore it is a historically false representation,” noted Halaçoğlu on the sixteen guards representation historic Turkish warriors. The MHP delegate had served at the General Directorate of the Ottoman Archives, and the General Directorate of State Archives.

Pointing out the irony in the President Recep Erdoğan’s placement at the center of the troops on the staircase, Halaçoğlu stated “the ruler never gets between soldiers. This would imply that the Janissaries, [the traditional Ottoman Unit] had taken over the country in a coup."

Describing the appearance of the guards "resembles a group of rag-tag men" the MHP delegate added the outfits look more like morning gowns. “They have donned some with pikes, others with helmets, at least do it properly,” pointed out Halaçoğlu.

A few other inaccuracies are as followed, “The Ottoman soldiers are light armored units, and there was never such a thing as bright armor. The Göktürk soldiers wore their hair was down to the waist.”

Halaçoğlu echoed much of the mockery the event received, highlighting that this attempt by Erdoğan to appeal to nationalist sentiments made Turkey the laughingstock of the world.

The soldiers sparked a social media phenomenon with touched-up images replacing the soldiers with Marvel’s Avengers and Lord of the Rings, to name a few.

Leading Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş, who lost to Erdoğan in last year's presidential election, told local TV channel Haberturk that Erdoğan could have completed the picture by dressing up as "İbrahim the Mad," a 17th-century sultan.

Ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Balıkesir deputy Tülay Babuşçu said the "Ottoman Empire has resumed after a 90-year break” via Twitter on Thursday, in a reference to Erdoğan's welcome ceremonies.