Erdogan threatens Europe – VG

In a broad speech, disconnected from all decency, the authoritarian president launched a collective attack on European leadership. In turn, he accused countries of acting as “fascist” in their treatment of Muslims and compared European nations to the Nazis hunting down Jews.

You know that Erdogan is short-tempered and hairy. For him, even the slightest criticism of Islamist fundamentalism is part of the so-called “hate campaign” of the West against the Muslim minority in Europe. It does not speak to deaf ears, sadly.

Erdogan’s deliberately provocative and false rhetoric against France and Macron has been met with an affirmative nod on many Arab streets. There has already been a boycott of French products in Kuwait. On Saudi social media, people are being asked to stay away from French retail chains, and the University of Qatar canceled events that would mark a year of cultural exchange between the two states. Even the supposedly sane Imran Khan, the Oxford-educated Prime Minister of Pakistan, has accused Macron of “attacking Islam.”

The Turkish president knows exactly which strings he is playing on. It is a cynical strategy. In this way, he manages to both promote himself as a leader in the Muslim world, and divert attention from problems at home. Almost nothing is more unifying than a common external enemy.

Erdogan’s aggressive outbursts against Macron are particularly disgusting when you look at what the French president actually said and compare it to the grotesque comments of Turkey’s leader. Emmanuel Macron called on French Muslims to renounce extremism, accept a pluralistic society and follow the rules, values ​​and norms of the country in which they have chosen to settle. Macron has not criticized the religious principles of Islam or promoted hate speech against Muslims in any way. Certainly, he has not compared Islam to the extremist ideology that legitimized the persecution of the Jews.

But what President Macron has actually said seems irrelevant to Erdogan, who has once again used criticism of Islamist fundamentalism and terror to fuel a latent rage against the West. The secular Turkish state is under strong pressure precisely from fundamentalist Islam, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan has used anti-democratic currents to ensure his own control of power.

It is nothing new that the Turkish president is mocking European leaders in this way. It does so whenever some of them allow themselves to be asked to stop persecuting and imprisoning political opponents, journalists critical of the regime, or others who dare to denounce it. But it could be a challenge for Erdogan to face his colleagues at the next NATO summit. And how is he going to explain to his supporters, not least, that it is natural for Turkey to continue to cooperate in defense with the “fascists” and “Nazis”?

President Erdogan is not just playing loud. Play dangerous.