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Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been at the forefront of a backlash by Muslims against France’s handling of the recent massacre of Muhammad cartoons.
Erdogan did it with a series of insults that made the headlines of French President Emmanuel Macron this weekend.
“What is the problem of the individual named Macron with Islam and with Muslims?” Erdogan said in a speech in Kayseri, in central Turkey, on Saturday (October 24).
“Macron needs treatment at the mental level. What else can you say to a head of state who does not understand freedom of belief,” Erdogan said.
France called its ambassador in Ankara in protest.
“We demand that Erdogan change the course of his policy because he is dangerous in all respects,” Macron’s office also said, alluding to the risk that Erdogan’s rhetoric could embolden Islamist attackers.
And France had noted “the absence of messages of condolence and support” from Turkey for the murder, a week ago, of a French school teacher by an Islamist assailant, Macron’s office added.
But Erdogan did the same again on Sunday.
“The head of France has lost his way … [Macron] it’s a case and it really must be [medically] revised, “Erdogan said in a television speech in Malatya, eastern Turkey.
The EU’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, called on Erdogan to “stop this dangerous spiral of confrontation” in a statement the same day.
EU leaders were ready to “relaunch relations” with Turkey at a summit in December, Borrell said, or Turkey could “find itself even more isolated” if things went wrong, he added.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis also said on Sunday that “hate speech directed at France by Turkish leaders is unacceptable, it fuels religious hatred.”
But Erdogan’s communications chief Fahrettin Altun indicated that the Turkish president’s comments were part of a concerted policy.
Macron was “intimidating Muslims and reminding them that they are welcome to continue to run Europe’s economy, but that they will never be a part of it,” Altun said on social media.
The plight of Muslims in Europe was like that of Jews in the 1920s, Altun also said.
And Turkey has called for a boycott of French products.
Anti-Macron insults flew after the French president’s harsh response to the murder of a French teacher, Samuel Paty, 10 days ago.
An 18-year-old radical Islamist beheaded Paty for showing students blasphemous cartoons of Muhammad in a class on freedom of expression.
And Macron, while attending Paty’s memorial service on Wednesday, defended the right to freedom of expression for French media and academics.
“We will not give up on cartoons,” Macron said.
“He [Paty] He was killed because Islamists want our future … they will never have it, “Macron also said.
His comments came after a security crackdown, including raids on French mosques and expulsions of suspected Islamists on anti-terrorism watch lists.
Iran, Jordan and Qatar have also complained about Macron’s handling of the situation.
Popular social media campaigns reportedly led food stores in Kuwait, Morocco and Qatar to remove French products from their shelves.
And the Qatari media helped stoke anti-French hostility in Palestine, prompting angry statements from militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
EU leaders are no strangers to Erdogan’s insults.
He accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel of being a “Nazi” in a heated election campaign in 2017. Erdogan also insulted Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte for the fact that Dutch soldiers failed to stop a Muslim massacre in Bosnia in the 1990s. .
But what once looked like mere populism now looks more threatening, amid clashes between Turkey and the EU on multiple fronts.
Turkish clashes
Erdogan’s army continues to violate Cypriot and Greek-claimed waters in the eastern Mediterranean.
Turkish warships have tried to disrupt efforts by the EU and NATO to stop arms smuggling into the civil war in Libya, France said.
Turkey also sent Syrian mercenaries to fight a new war in the South Caucasus despite EU calls led by France for a ceasefire.
And before that, Turkey invaded northern Syria despite Western calls.
For his part, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg described Turkey as a “valuable ally” after video talks with defense ministers on Friday.
He welcomed the decision by Greece and Turkey to suspend military exercises in disputed areas that were due to take place this week.
But he criticized any action that could “exacerbate” tensions, amid the news that a Turkish oil exploration ship, in any case, was to sail back to an area of inflammation near the Greek islands.
And he regretted that Turkey tested a new anti-aircraft missile system, the S-400, on Friday, which it bought from Russia, even though it was incompatible with other NATO weapons.
