Presidency's Director of Communications Fahrettin Altun expressed the following in response to Prime Minister of Italy Mario Draghi’s statement targeting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: "We strongly condemn this rhetoric which has no place in diplomacy. If Mario Draghi is looking for a dictator, he should look no further than Italy's history."
Director of Communications Altun stated the following in a post he shared on his social media account in Turkish and Italian:
''Italy's appointed Prime Minister went too far when he called Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whom the Turkish people elected as president with 52% of the vote, a 'dictator'. We strongly condemn this rhetoric that has no place in diplomacy. If Mario Draghi is looking for a dictator, then he should look no further than Italy’s history.''