It has been easy to dismiss the Turkish president\u2019s almost daily reinvention of traditions and the pomp and ceremony that go with it as silly and contrived.<\/p>\n
By receiving the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas at his ostentatious new palace, in a theatrical, melodramatic setting, flanked by 16 men dressed in historical costumes, Mr Erdo\u011fan once again demonstrated his determination to shape the Turkish institutions in his own image.<\/p>\n
In Monday\u2019s official ceremony, 16 spear-and-sword carrying, armoured and colourfully cloaked guardsmen each represented the empires of Turkish history, ranging from the Great Hunnic Empire of 204 BC to the Ottoman Empire, replaced by the modern Turkish Republic in 1923.<\/p>\n
What looked like a cloak-and-dagger scenery soon became obvious as an enactment symbolising the 16 stars of the official seal<\/a> of the Turkish presidency.<\/p>\n Originally, made up of a sun and 20 stars, the seal was later redesigned with reduced number of 16 stars when a legal amendment was passed in 1985. \u00a0The number and the choice of the past Turkic states included in the seal have \u00a0caused controversy ever since.<\/p>\n Photos of Mr Erdo\u011fan, shaking Mr Abbas\u2019 hand, with costumed soldiers lining the presidential palace stairs on either side, were greeted with widespread mockery inside and outside Turkey. \u201cErdo\u011fan meets Abbas with military dress show\u201d headlined Hurriyet Daily News<\/a>. \u00a0\u00a0\u201cAbbas welcomed at Turkish presidential palace by Erdo\u011fan \u2013 and 16 warriors\u201d commented The Guardian<\/a>. \u00a0\u201cGandalf, R2-D2 and the Hulk join Erdo\u011fan-Abbas ceremony\u201d, quipped Aljazeera<\/a> .<\/p>\n