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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today launched a new attack on his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, saying he needed psychiatric treatment due to his treatment of Muslims and Islam, Reuters reported.
Earlier this month, Macron promised to fight “Islamist separatism”, who he said threatened to conquer some Muslim communities in France. The country was shocked by the beheading of a history teacher by a radical Islamist who wanted revenge on cartoons of the prophet Muhammad shown by the teacher during a lesson on freedom of expression, the agency recalls.
“What is the problem of this man, named Macron, with Muslims and Islam? Macron needs a psychiatric examination,” Erdogan said in a speech at a congress of his Justice and Development Party in the central Turkish city of Kayseri.
“What else can you say about a head of state who does not understand freedom of religion And who treats the millions of people living in your country who are of different religions in this way? Erdogan asked.
The Turkish president is a devout Muslim, and since his party came to power in 2002, he has been trying to convert Turkey, a Muslim but secular state, to Islam, Reuters reported.
Following the French president’s comment on “Islamic separatism,” Erdogan said on October 6 that Macron’s words were “clear provocation” and show the “nerve” of the French leader.
Turkey and France are allies in NATO, but they have differences on issues such as politics in Syria and Libya, maritime jurisdiction in the eastern Mediterranean and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Erdogan and Macron discussed their differences in a telephone conversation last month and agreed to improve contacts and keep communication channels open, Reuters recalls.
Meanwhile, the Turkish president accuses German police of “fascism” over recent police operation in Berlin mosque.
“European fascism reaches a new level with similar attacks on its own citizens,” he said.
German police raided the Mevlana Mosque and several other locations in Berlin as part of an investigation into fraud involving coronavirus subsidies, German-language Turkish public television TRT Deutsch reported on Thursday. The Turkish authorities have strongly condemned the incident, calling it an “ugly act”.
