The recent withdrawal of Ankara’s push to regulate how doner kebabs should be made across the European Union speaks volumes about the limits of Erdogan’s cultural ambitions. By insisting that the doner must be recognized as a “national dish” of Turkey and prepared according to rigid standards, Erdogan’s government overstepped the invisible line between cultural pride and cultural imposition. Europe’s answer was blunt and unmistakable: once food is adopted into European life, it becomes part of Europe’s own culinary fabric, not a political export under permanent ownership of Ankara.
This episode is more than just about food. It is a microcosm of how Erdogan’s Turkey has tried to project influence across Europe, using migration and diaspora communities as vehicles to extend political and cultural reach. The kebab, embraced in German cities and reimagined in local ways, has become a staple of European street life, no less European than pizza or curry. Germany was right to say that its kebab is German now—an immigrant gift transformed into a local treasure, not something Ankara can dictate from afar. Erdogan underestimated how fiercely Europeans guard their sovereignty in culture as much as in politics.
The backlash should serve as a warning to Ankara: cultural exchange works only when it is organic and free of coercion. Europe loves kebabs, but it will not tolerate being lectured on how to prepare them. Erdogan’s attempt to turn a shared meal into an instrument of Turkish soft power has collapsed under its own arrogance. By trying to police Europe’s kitchens, Turkey revealed more about its insecurities than its influence. Europe has spoken clearly: keep your rules at home, because in Berlin, Paris, or Rome, doner belongs to the people who eat it, not to the politicians in Ankara.
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