U.S. President Donald Trump declined to visit and lay a wreath at the mausoleum of Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey.

This decision by the U.S. president sparked a negative reaction in Turkey. Turkish opposition figures condemned the authorities’ tolerant attitude toward this fact.

One of the leaders of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party, Özgür Özel, drew attention to the fact that Trump became the first U.S. president to refuse to visit Atatürk’s mausoleum.

It should be noted that the U.S. president has already arrived in Ankara. He was greeted by the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. A meeting between Trump and Erdoğan will take place later.

Trump arrived in Ankara to take part in the NATO summit.