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reTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan calls for a boycott of French products. The reason is the dispute between France and the Islamic countries over the debate over the exhibition and publication of cartoons of Muhammad. “Just as some in France say ‘don’t buy Turkish brands,’ I am addressing my nation: don’t pay attention to French-labeled products, don’t buy them,” Erdogan said in a televised speech on Monday.
Other countries had already started a boycott on Sunday. In Kuwait, 50 consumer cooperatives said they had recalled all French products from their stores, according to the “Al-Kabas” newspaper. Also in Qatar, supermarket chains have announced that they will remove French products from their shelves until further notice.
Videos could be seen on social media of employees at a supermarket in Amman, the Jordanian capital, removing French dairy products from refrigerated shelves. Users spread the French brand names on the internet and called for a boycott, and the hashtags were also circulating.
Merkel is behind Macron
The largest French trade association, Medef, has backed the Paris government in the face of calls to boycott French products in several Arab countries. Giving in to blackmail is out of the question, Medef boss Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux told BFMTV on Monday. “There are times when we have to put principle before the opportunity to expand our business.”
Medef is “in full solidarity with the French government,” said the head of the association. “I urge companies to resist blackmail and, sadly, to endure this boycott for now.”
The German federal government also supported Macron. “These are defamatory statements that are completely unacceptable,” the government spokesman said.
Steffen Seibert in Berlin. “We stand by the side of France in solidarity,” said Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD). the
President Erdogan’s personal attacks on President Macron “are a new low point, and they are total
unacceptable. “Anyone who” simply equates the fight against Islamist extremists with racism and Islamophobia is not acting differently than irresponsible and is playing the game of those who want to divide our society. “
The dispute between France and the other countries was ignited by the debate over the exhibition and publication of cartoons of Muhammad. The background is statements by French President Emmanuel Macron after the brutal murder of a teacher in France.
Macron defended freedom of expression and sided with those who want to show or publish cartoons. France will not “do without cartoons and drawings, even if others withdraw from them,” Macron said at a memorial ceremony honoring the murdered Samuel Paty. He had shown cartoons of Muhammad in class and was killed in the street and later beheaded. Islamic tradition forbids representing the Prophet Muhammad.
