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Turkey calls for boycott of French goods amid Macron row
ANKARA, Oct 26, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan on Monday joined calls for a boycott of French goods, ramping
up a standoff between France and Muslim countries over Islam and
freedom of speech.
Erdogan has led the charge against President Emmanuel Macron over
his robust defence of the right to mock religion following the murder
of a French schoolteacher who had shown his class cartoons of the
Prophet Mohammed.
On Monday, the Turkish leader added his voice to calls in the Arab
world for citizens to spurn French goods.
“Never give credit to French-labelled goods, don’t buy them,”
Erdogan, who caused a furore at the weekend by declaring that Macron
needed “mental checks,” said during a televised speech in Ankara.
After Turkey was accused by France of remaining silent over Paty’s
killing on October 16, Erdogan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, on Monday
denounced the “monstrous murder”, adding “nothing” could justify the
attack.
French goods have already been pulled from supermarket shelves in
Qatar and Kuwait, among other Gulf states, whereas in Syria people
have burned pictures of Macron and French flags have been torched in
the Libyan capital Tripoli.
– European support –
The October 16 beheading of high-school teacher Samuel Paty by a
Chechen extremist caused deep shock in France.
Paty had shown his pupils some of the Mohammed cartoons over which
12 people were massacred at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in
2015.
Depictions of the Prophet Mohammed are seen as offensive by many
Muslims, but in France such cartoons have become identified with a
proud secular tradition dating back to the Revolution.
In the aftermath of Paty’s murder, Macron issued a passionate
defence of free speech and France’s secular values, vowing that the
country “will not give up cartoons.”
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As the backlash over France’s reaction widened, European leaders
rallied behind Macron.
“They are defamatory comments that are completely unacceptable,
particularly against the backdrop of the horrific murder of the French
teacher Samuel Paty by an Islamist fanatic,” German Chancellor Angela
Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said.
The prime ministers of Italy, the Netherlands and Greece also
expressed support for France, as did European Commission president
Ursula von der Leyen.
“President Erdogan’s words addressing President @EmmanuelMacron are
unacceptable,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte tweeted, adding that
the Netherlands stood “for the freedom of speech and against extremism
and radicalism.”
Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte tweeted “personal insults
don’t help the positive agenda the EU wants to have with Turkey but
pushes solutions further away.”
– Muslims treated ‘like Jews’ –
Erdogan on Monday compared the treatment of Muslims in Europe to
that of Jews before World War II, saying they were the object of a
“lynching campaign.”
“You are in a real sense fascists, you are in a real sense the
links in the chain of Nazism,” he said.
“European leaders should tell the French president to stop his hate
campaign” against Muslims, Erdogan added.
France has been targeted in a string of jihadist attacks that have
killed over 250 people since 2015 and led to deep soul-searching over
the impact of Islam on the country’s core values.
Some of the attackers have cited the Mohammed cartoons as well as
France’s ban on wearing the Islamic face veil in public among their
motives.
Several suspected Islamist radicals have been arrested in dozens of
raids since Paty’s murder, and about 50 organisations with alleged
links to such individuals have been earmarked for closure by the
government.
Earlier this month, Macron unveiled a plan to defend France’s
secular values against a trend of “Islamist separatism,” and described
Islam as a religion “in crisis.”
His stance has fuelled tensions with Turkey particularly.
On Saturday, Paris announced it was recalling its envoy to Ankara
after Erdogan, who has styled himself a defender of Muslims worldwide,
questioned Macron’s sanity.
But Macron on Sunday was defiant on Twitter.
“We will not give in, ever. We respect all differences in a spirit
of peace. We do not accept hate speech and defend reasonable debate.
We will always be on the side of human dignity and universal values,”
he said.
– ‘Resist the blackmail’ –
Macron has also drawn fire in other Muslim-majority countries.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan accused Macron of “attacking
Islam,” while the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, the Taliban, the
Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah and Morocco have also spoken out
against France.
A few dozen anti-Macron protesters rallied for the second day in a
row in the Gaza Strip, stamping a photo of the French president with a
red cross covering his face on the French cultural centre’s facade.
More protests are planned on Tuesday in Amman.
France’s largest employers’ federation on Monday urged companies to
“resist the blackmail” over the boycott calls.
“There is a time to put principles above business,” Medef chief
Geoffroy Roux de Bezieux told broadcaster RMC. “It is a question of
sticking to our republican values.”
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