Turkey on Thursday accused Emmanuel Macron of "
populism
" after the publication of remarks attributed to the French president qualifying the Ottoman rule over Algeria as colonization and which sparked diplomatic turmoil.
These “
populist
”
statements
are “
badly wrong
”, said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu at a press conference in Lviv, western Ukraine, where he was traveling.
"
If he has things to say to us, let him tell us in the face and not behind our back,
" he added.
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The affair began with the publication, last week, of an article in the daily
Le Monde
reporting an exchange between Emmanuel Macron and a group of young descendants of protagonists of the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962) . According to the newspaper, the French president estimated during this meeting that Algeria was built on "
a memorial rent
", arousing the anger of Algeria which announced the recall of its ambassador to Paris. “
Was there an Algerian nation before French colonization? That is the question. There were previous colonizations. Me, I am fascinated to see the capacity that Turkey has to make us totally forget the role it played in Algeria and the domination thatshe exercised
“, Added Emmanuel Macron, according to
Le Monde
.
A memorial battle between France and Turkey
These remarks aroused the anger of the Turkish government, for which memorial issues are very sensitive.
Turkey, heir to the Ottoman Empire which controlled present-day Algeria for three centuries, repeats over and over again that it has "
no task such as colonization or genocide
" in its history.
Turkey does not hesitate, on the other hand, to regularly criticize France's colonial past.
This memorial battle is part of a broader context of tensions between Turkey and France, two NATO member countries that are opposed by several disputes. Their relations were greatly strained last year, in particular with regard to Libya, Syria, but also the Eastern Mediterranean and the question of Cyprus. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan went so far as to question the "
mental health
" of Emmanuel Macron, accusing him of leading a "
campaign of hatred
" against Islam, because he had defended the right to caricature of the Prophet Muhammad and calling on his fellow citizens to boycott French products.
The two countries have nevertheless multiplied the gestures of appeasement in recent months, for example with the return last summer to Paris of a French national convicted by Turkey for possession of narcotics.