Turkish ambassador Ahmet Oguz Celikkol has been recalled and will be replaced after less than a year in office, Ankara announced on Sunday.
According to Turkish reports, Celikkol's replacement will be Kerim Uras, a local diplomat who is an expert on Middle Eastern affairs. The reason for the move was not disclosed.
In January, reports surfaced that Celikkol asked to be recalled after a humiliating public debacle in which he was seated on a lower chair than that of Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and another Israeli diplomat when he the ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Ministry.
| It's in the Sunna or the Hadiths or something: no kaffir may have his head higher than that of a Muslim, lest the kaffir come to think they are equal. |
The Jerusalem Post reported in February that Celikkol had never requested reassignment, but had said that there was "no way back" from the disrespectful insult.
During the controversial meeting, Ayalon had chastised Celikkol over a Turkish prime-time TV show in which Mossad agents were depicted as child-killers and kidnappers. Celikkol was seated on a low stool, with no food and only an Israeli flag on the table.
| Show me photos. Otherwise I have to think the description has wandered a certain distance from absolute truth. |
Ayalon later issued a formal apology,
| What was the apology, exactly? |
following Turkish President Abdullah Gul's threat to recall the ambassador unless tensions between the two countries were resolved, but the damage was apparently done: Celikkol will not be completing his first year as ambassador. |
