The "colonial past" and "institutional racism" in France are at the root of the outbreak of urban violence in this country, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday.
The head of state expressed "concern" that these recent events in France "lead to more oppression of Muslims and migrants", after the death of a 17-year-old man killed by police gunfire during a traffic stop.
LIVE - Riots after the death of Nahel: the device of 45,000 police and gendarmes renewed for Monday night
Muslims in France oppressed
Comparing the death of several hundred migrants at the end of June off the Greek coast, deprived of rescue, to the mediatized disappearance of the "five rich people who went to see the Titanic", he detected "the sign of the colonial, arrogant, inhuman mentality based on the supremacy of the white man". "Especially in countries known for their colonial past, where cultural racism has turned into institutional racism (and is) at the root of events in France," he said. "Of course," President Erdogan continued, "we do not tolerate the looting of shops and urban unrest cannot be used to demand justice," but "it is clear that the authorities must also learn from this social explosion."
The head of state, who was speaking live on television after a meeting of his government, regularly denounces the "Islamophobia" which, according to him, prevails in France. "Unfortunately, most immigrants who are condemned to live in ghettos, systematically oppressed, are Muslims," Erdogan said. Turkish media are closely following the riots that broke out in France after the death of the young Nahel, especially the public television channel TRT, which never fails to indicate that the young man, born in France, "was Algerian".