This drew the ire of the Turkish presidency, which saw in the report a stab at the prestige of his office and no doubt an attempt by the journalist to belittle him personally.

The journalist in question is Tulin Daloglu, a freelancer who writes a weekly column for The Washington Times. Miss Daloglu wrote in her column that Mr. Gul's meeting with the U.S. president would be brief, in view of Mr. Bush's departure for the Middle East that same day. The morning meeting, wrote the columnist would be "followed by a quick lunch…."

Miss Daloglu added that there would be no state dinner…" and other events which typically are the marks of a "special relationship."

Her comments -- taken out of context -- received far more attention in the Turkish media than they really merited. For two consecutive days -- last Thursday and Friday -- Cengiz Candar, a prominent columnist in Turkey, wrote that Daloglu's allegations of the head of the Turkish republic eating pizza or a hamburger had "angered Turkey."

Turks thought it would undignified for their president to be fed fast-food. Well, as was pointed out at the top of this article, the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and Mrs. Bush are not terribly enthusiastic when it comes to entertaining. However, from that to actually feeding fast-food to an official guest on a visit of state remains somewhat far-fetched.

In the meantime more than one Turkish daily had a go at Miss Daloglu, accusing her of a variety of not-so-nice things. In fact Miss Daloglu had written in her column that of course "lunch at the White House will be appropriately august -- and in no way did I intend to diminish the significance of your visit."

But what Miss Daloglu did do was to ask, in an article, to try and understand the purpose of the meeting between Gul and Bush. "I ask without agenda for your guidance in interpreting this exchange during last week's briefing by National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley to the White House press corps about Mr. Bush's trip to the Middle East," wrote the Turkish journalist, who says she had even received threatening telephone calls from Gul supporters.

But President Gul and Tulin Daloglu are, one could say, "old friends." She has written about him in the past. And he has criticized her writing in the past.

Mr. Gul, who spoke in front of a packed audience at the Woodrow Wilson center during his visit here last week, made a big point of presenting Turkey, under his administration, as moving full speed ahead toward democracy.

I am sure Mr. Gul needs no reminder that a free and independent press is an essential part of a democratic state. Even if it means that the president occasionally gets to eat fast-food, or humble pie.