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Erdoğan: After verbal attacks against Macron, France last withdrew its ambassador from Turkey
Photo: POOL / REUTERS
The relationship between France and Turkey is deteriorating.
In a dispute with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called on the Turks to boycott French brands.
"From here I appeal to my people. Just don't pay attention to French brands, don't buy them," said Erdoğan.
With a view to the alleged Islamophobia in Europe, he drew a comparison to National Socialism.
Muslims in Europe were exposed to a "lynching campaign" that was comparable to the persecution of "the Jews before the Second World War," said Erdoğan.
He accused European heads of state and government of being "fascists in the true sense of the word" and "chain rings of National Socialism".
Europe must end the "Macron-controlled hate campaign" against Muslims.
After the beheading of a teacher in France, Macron had made it clear that freedom of expression in France also includes the right to caricature the prophet Mohammed.
France will "not forego caricatures and drawings," even if others do, said Macron at a memorial service in honor of the killed Samuel Paty.
He had shown Mohammed cartoons in class and was killed and beheaded in the street.
Islamic tradition forbids depicting the Prophet Mohammed.
As a result, traders took French goods from their branches in Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar on Sunday.
Erdoğan accused Macron of Islamophobia over the weekend and expressed doubts about his mental health.
Paris called back its ambassador from Ankara in protest.
Maas describes Erdoğan's verbal attacks as "completely unacceptable"
The current call for a boycott marks a new low in relations between Paris and Ankara. Most recently, the two countries had already clashed over the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the war in Libya and the gas dispute in the eastern Mediterranean.
Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) has also described Erdoğan's verbal attacks on France's head of state Macron as a "new low" in relations with Ankara.
Erdoğan's personal attacks are "completely unacceptable," Maas said in a joint press conference with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, in Berlin.
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asc / dpa / AFP