“Boris the Turk” hailed in Johnson’s ancestral hometown in Turkey

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Resident pointing to Boris Johnson’s ancestral home in Turkey

Çankırı: The election new United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson whose family roots reach back to an Ottoman minister was hailed with great fanfare by fellow Turkish townsmen in Çankırı.

Residents in the northern Turkish province , around 140 kilometers northeast of Ankara, told Demirören News Agency they were proud that the family had members “who could lead the world.”

Mustafa Bal, a resident of the village of Kalfat in the Orta district of Çankırı, told the agency that Johnson’s family is known amongst the village residents as “Sarıoğlangiller,” the sons of the blonde ones.

Bayram Tavukçu, the village head, congratulated Johnson and expressed the residents’ wish to travel to the United Kingdom and offer their congratulations face-to-face.

According to Bal, Kalfat had invited Johnson when he was holding the post of London mayor, Bal said.

The residents want to have Johnson over to the village during his premiership as well, he added.

Johnson’s great-grandfather, Ali Kemal, was an Ottoman journalist who was born in the small village of Kalfat in the heart of Anatolia. As a politician, he served for three months as the interior minister in the government of Damat Ferit Pasha. He also held the post of education minister.

Ali Kemal’s father, Hadji Ahmet Rıza Efendi was born in Kalfat in 1813, Demirören said.

An opponent of the 1919-1923 Turkish War of Independence, Kemal lived in exile in Europe.

Speaking the journalists after Johnson’s victory announcement, his father, Stanley Johnson, said that their family’s ancestors reached to the Ottoman Empire.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan congratulated Johnson on Twitter, expressing his anticipation for a further develoment of Turkey-United Kingdom relatios.