Sofagate is a diplomatic protocol incident that happened during the visit of President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and President of the European Council Charles Michel to Turkey in April 2021.[1] When Michel and von der Leyen were to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, there were only two chairs prepared for the three leaders in the room in which they were received.[2][3] Michel then seated himself in the chair beside Erdoğan while Von der Leyen was offered to take a seat on a sofa in the same room across the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.[4] Many commentators described the incident as sexist, with Michel as a man taking the more prominent position than von der Leyen as a woman, despite both having the title President.[2] Later on, Çavuşoğlu responded, saying that the seating arrangement was made in accordance with the requests of the European side.[5]