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ANKARA, KOMPAS.com – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on his citizens to boycott French products.
This is a new chapter of tension between the two NATO member countries, after Paris has taken a firm stance against extremist groups or individuals.
“As already mentioned in France ‘don’t buy Turkish products’. I ask my people not to buy any of their products,” he said.
Also read: Erdogan joked with the president of France for a mind control
The boycott of “Wine Country” products has already appeared in supermarkets in Qatar and Kuwait, and also in Jordan there have been calls for a ban on purchases.
This is Erdogan’s second attack on France, after he mocked President Emmanuel Macron at the weekend.
At the time, he said that Macron had to do a psychiatric examination, and it had an impact in Paris that summoned the Turkish ambassador.
Reported AFP On Monday (10/26/2020), Ankara’s relations with the West have been strained following a coup attempt to topple Erdogan in 2016.
But the distancing of Turkey and France has been going on for years, with problems including Libya, Syria and gas exploration in the Mediterranean.
Meanwhile, Erdogan and Macron have been arguing, especially over Paris’s criticism of Ankara’s involvement in conflict areas, such as Nagorno-Karabakh.
Also read: Erdogan explains why Turkey supports Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh war
The new tensions were sparked by Emmanuel Macron’s plans to “rid France of Islam from foreign influence” in early October.
“European leaders should tell the president of France to stop the hate campaign against Muslims,” Erdogan said at the time.
Some 18 months before the elections, Macron joked that Islam “is a religion in crisis throughout the world.”
Also read: Considering having insulted Islam, the president of France was criticized by Christians in Arabia
He then provoked the ire of the Muslim world by promising that his country would not tear down the controversial cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad.
Due to the cartoon, History and Geography professor Samuel Paty was beheaded by an 18-year-old Chechen teenager two weeks ago.
Paty was killed while walking home after showing the cartoon as part of free speech material.
