Officials say Turkey’s president, who flew to the Unite.
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Turkey’s President has cut short his trip to the U.S. and will not attend the funeral of boxer Muhammad Ali, his office said Friday, amid reports of a rift with the ceremony’s organizers.
Erdogan, who has expressed his admiration for Ali as a boxer and a champion of Muslim rights, did not make a statement on his arrival in Istanbul and his office did not provide an explanation as to why he had returned early.
Erdogan and other government representatives left for Turkey on February 9 without participating in the full funeral ceremony in Louisville, Kentucky, according to information from Turkish presidential sources.
The president participated in funeral prayers for Ali and also had a fast-breaking meal (iftar) with Meskhetian Turks.
Some Turkish media reported that Erdogan left after he was told he had been dropped from the list of speakers and that he would not be able to lay a covering brought from Islam’s most sacred mosque in Mecca on Muhammad Ali’s coffin.
Police stand guard during an Islamic prayer service for Muhammad Ali at the Kentucky Exposition Center on June 9, 2016 in Louisville, Kentucky.
But according to another report, the president and Diyanet head Mehmet Görmez were rejected when they asked to read a piece from the Quran, which led the president to cut his program short.
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Erdogan praised Ali as a “voice of the oppressed” at the dinner hosted by Turks and other Muslims living in the United States late on Thursday, his office said.
