The “new sultan” Erdogan is definitely a threat that Europe takes seriously.
And first of all the Elysée.
President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday warned against Turkey's “attempts to interfere” in the next French presidential election in 2022. An offensive speech without closing the door to an improvement in relations with Ankara, however appalling for more one year.
“Obviously.
There will be attempts to interfere with the next election.
It is written, and the threats are not veiled ”, declared Emmanuel Macron, questioned within the framework of a documentary of the program C Dans l'Air of the television channel France 5 on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan .
Referring to the burning controversy on the religious question, triggered after his speech in the fall on "Islamist separatism", the French president blasted "a policy of state lies relayed by the press organs controlled by the Turkish state" , as well as "by certain large chains controlled by Qatar".
A double-bladed attack of sorts.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not his first attempt in terms of electoral interference, especially in Germany, when he asked German-Turkish voters to vote against Angela Merkel's party in 2017. “We must 'we are very lucid,' continued Emmanuel Macron, whose relations with his Turkish counterpart were extremely strained before a thaw began a few months ago.
Degraded bilateral relations
“I have noted since the start of the year Erdogan's desire to re-engage in the relationship.
I want to believe that it is possible ”, declared the French president, defending himself of any“ animosity towards Turkey ”.
“But I think you can't re-engage (a relationship) when there are ambiguities.
I do not want to re-engage in a peaceful relationship if there is behind such maneuvers that continue, ”he said.
"Last autumn there was [in Turkey] a policy of state lies."
Exceptional interview with President @EmmanuelMacron to follow in our new documentary "#Erdogan, the sultan who challenges # Europe".
📺 Tonight at 8.50 pm on @ France5tv pic.twitter.com/BThrTe0b8K
- C in the air (@Cdanslair) March 23, 2021
Bilateral relations began to deteriorate with the Turkish offensive in October 2019 against Kurdish forces in Syria, allies of the West.
Turkish interventionism in Libya, in the eastern Mediterranean (where an incident opposed Turkish and French buildings in June 2020) and French policy against Islamic extremism then deepened the many antagonisms between Paris and Ankara.
“France has been very clear.
When there were unilateral acts in the Eastern Mediterranean, we condemned them and we acted by sending frigates ", underlined the French leader, deploring that NATO is" not sufficiently clear "with Ankara.
“We need to clarify Turkey's place in NATO,” he said.
A more than thorny issue.
“We need a dialogue with Turkey, everything must be done so that it does not turn its back on Europe”.
However, "we need a dialogue with Turkey, we must do everything so that it does not turn its back on Europe and go towards more religious extremism or negative geopolitical choices for us", continued a Macron volunteer.
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"It is a partner on security issues, on migration issues," recalled the French president.
The EU and Turkey concluded a migration agreement in 2016, giving Ankara the management of illegal immigration.
An agreement that sometimes serves as a pressure lever for the Turkish state on the European Union, struggling with the migratory flows from this part of the globe.
Stressing that Turkey was hosting more than three million Syrian refugees on its soil, Macron nevertheless felt that it had "taken up its responsibilities".
“On the migration issue we have to work with Turkey.
If they (the Turks) open the doors, you have three million Syrian refugees arriving in Europe, ”he warned.
One year before the presidential election in France, this is a given that has not escaped the tenant of the Elysee.
