Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who wanted to make a show at Muhammad Ali’s funeral, took a heavy knock during that very ceremony.
According to the Turkish Cumhuriyet, famous Rabbi of American Jews, Michael Lerner, delivered a speech during Muhammad Ali’s funeral service, in which he excoriated the Turkish President. He urged the latter to stop massacring the Kurds.
The Turkish President wanted to deliver a speech at Muhammad Ali’s funeral service, but Ali’s family turned him down. He also wanted to lay a cloth from the Kaaba on Ali’s coffin during the ceremony, but the family members refused this. Erdoğan also wanted the head of Turkey's religious affairs directorate to recite part of the Koran, but this wish had again been refused. Following this, the Turkish President returned to Turkey without taking part in the funeral.
