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French President Emmanuel Macron has accused Turkey of taking a “warlike” attitude towards its NATO allies. Tensions could be eased if his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan showed respect and didn’t tell lies, he said in an interview.
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The French president tried to calm tensions with Muslims around the world after a heated discussion following the murder of French teacher, Samuel Paty, who showed Mohammed cartoons in a lesson on freedom of expression. Macron said in an interview with Al-Jazeera that it is France’s wish to calm things down, but in order to do that it is essential that “the Turkish president respects France, respects the European Union, respects its values and not lie and spreads insults. ”
“I understand that people may be shocked by the cartoons, but I will never accept that violence is justified,” he also said. “I understand the feelings that this brings about, I respect them. But I want you to understand my role. My role is to calm things down, as I am doing here, but at the same time I have to defend these rights. ”
“I will always defend the freedom to speak, write, think and draw in my country.”
Macron also condemned Turkey’s behavior in Syria, Libya and the Mediterranean. “Turkey has a warlike attitude towards its NATO allies.”
Hateful campaign
Tensions between the two countries have been running high for a while and peaked last weekend when Erdogan questioned Macron’s mental health. France therefore recalled its ambassador from Ankara. But it will be returned again. According to the French Foreign Minister, Turkey had “made the conscious choices” to “instrumentalize” the beheading of the French teacher and accused Ankara of launching a “hateful and defamatory campaign” against France.
The Turkish condemnation of the knife attack in Nice, on the other hand, according to the minister was “different, clear and unambiguous, but that does not preclude clarification from Ankara.”
“We have asked our ambassador to return to Ankara to follow up on this demand for clarification and explanation from the Turkish authorities,” he said. (sgg)
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