Erdoğan meets Abbas with military dress show

ANKARA

Actors dressed in the military costumes of 16 states founded throughout history by Turks staged a dress show as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara. (Hürriyet Photos / Rıza Özel)

Turkey’s new presidential palace witnessed a "dress show" during a welcoming ceremony for a visiting head of state for the first time on Jan. 12.



Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan shook hands flanked by the costumed retinue, before moving on to the meeting room for bilateral talks.



Since the mid-1920s, the Presidential Seal has featured the sun, symbolizing the Republic of Turkey, as well as 16 five-pointed stars.



The stars were attributed in the official narrative of Turkey to “the 16 Great Turkish Empires” in 1969. Previously, it was accepted that they were symbols for the 16 Turkish beyliks, the principalities that emerged in Anatolia between the 13th-15th centuries, after the fall of the Seljuks.



According to the official narrative, the 16 Great Turkish Empires that ruled in Asia, Europe and Africa, are as follows: The Great Hunnic Empire (209 BC-93 AD), the Western Hunnic Empire (48 AD-216 AD), the European Hunnic Empire (375-469), the White Hunnic Empire (390-577), the Göktürk Empire (552-745), the Avar Empire (565-835), the Khazar Empire (651-983), the Uighur State (745-1369), the Karahanids (840-1212), the Gaznavids (962-1186), the Great Seljuk Empire (1040-1157), the Harzemshahs (1097-1231), the Golden Horde State (1236-1502), the Great Timur Empire (1368-1501), the Babur Empire (1526-1858) and the Ottoman Empire (1299-1922).

