News
Josh Barrie
Jul 16, 2016
The Turkish military attempted a coup on Friday night, blocking key bridges, taking over a major TV station, and scrambling fighter jets.
As of Saturday morning (GMT), the country's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was away from the capital when events unfolded, denounced the coup attempt as an "act of treason" and insisted his government remains in charge.
As global tensions continue to rise, many have been making the same joke about Boris Johnson's new job as foreign secretary. Soon after Britain's new prime minister, Theresa May, announced the former London mayor had been given one of the top ministerial jobs, the world looked an increasingly unsettling place.
A day before the Turkish military action, yet another tragic terrorist attempt took place in Nice.
Obviously, we're not beginning to suggest such atrocities are the fault of Johnson. We're just pointing out the fact that diplomacy is fragile, and we have a man in charge of our country's foreign affairs who once suggested that black people have low IQ scores, has offended nearly every country on the planet and recently wrote an insulting poem about the Turkish president (see below).
Here are some concerned people...
Interestingly, Johnson's paternal great-grandfather is the Turkish Ali Kemal, a liberal journalist, government official, and poet who died during the Turkish war of independence.
Johnson, therefore, may well know where Turkey is:
Johnson knows who Erdogan is, too. He once wrote a poem about him having sexual relations with a goat. It won him a poetry competition in the Spectator magazine, of which he was once the editor.
There was a young fellow from Ankara
Who was a terrific wankerer.
Till he sowed his wild oats
With the help of a goat
But he didn’t even stop to thankera.
To be fair to Johnson, he seems to have said all the right things so far throughout his tenure:
But people remain less than convinced.
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