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- After a verbal attack by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan against French President Emmanuel Macron, France called its ambassador in Ankara for consultations for the first time.
- French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced that Turkey’s behavior was unacceptable.
- The French ambassador was due to return to Paris on Sunday. This case had never happened before, the Elysee circles confirmed.
“President Erdogan’s words are unacceptable,” the French news agency AFP quoted the reasoning from the Elysee Palace on Saturday night. “We do not engage in useless arguments and we do not accept insults,” he said. The Turkish president is asked to change the course of his dangerous policy.
Turkish President feels “Islamophobia”
Erdogan had done it earlier Saturday at a congress of his AKP party in Kayseri in Central Anatolia against “worrying signs of growing Islamophobia in Europe.” As an example, he cited Macron, among others, who declared war on radical Islamism in France after the beheading of teacher Samuel Paty a week ago. Paty was murdered by an 18-year-old with Russo-Chechen roots after showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in class.
According to the report, the Elysee noted that Erdogan had not sent any “message of condolences and support” after Paty’s murder.
Macron promotes an Islam that is “compatible with the values of the republic.” The strict separation of Church and State is a fundamental principle of the French constitution.
“What kind of problem does this person named Macron have with Islam and Muslims?” Erdogan asked at Saturday’s event. Macron should be in psychological treatment, the Turkish president added. His French counterpart does not understand freedom of belief.
It is not Erdogan’s first attack on Macron
Erdogan’s verbal attacks on Macron are not necessarily new. Last November, the Turkish president had already questioned the Frenchman’s mental health. At the time, Macron had witnessed “brain death” to the NATO defense alliance. Erdogan later said that Macron should have his own brain death tested.
There were insults and provocations from Erdogan almost every week during the summer, AFP said, citing the Elysee Palace. This time, however, it’s also about “the context.”
Much potential for conflict between Paris and Ankara
The list of current points of contention between Paris and Ankara is long: among other things, Macron had sent additional warships to the eastern Mediterranean in the maritime area dispute between the EU countries Greece and Cyprus, on the one hand, and Turkey, on the other, to symbolically support Greece and was open to them. Additional sanctions from Turkey are shown. France had also harshly criticized Turkey’s interference in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In the conflict with Armenia over the South Caucasus region, which has been disputed between the two countries for decades, Azerbaijan may refer to its “sister state” Turkey.
