Turkish President accuses French of Islamophobia and says he needs "mental treatment

Open warfare between Erdogan and Macron

photo_camera PHOTO - Emmanuel Macron, presidente francés, y Recep Tayyip Erdogan, presidente turco

The relations between Turkey and France are becoming more and more tense. Opposing interests in Libya, the dispute over territorial waters between Cyprus, Greece and Ankara and now in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, together with the assassination of the French professor by an Islamist radical, have created a breeding ground that will be difficult to settle between the two countries.

"What is the problem of the individual called Macron with Islam and with Muslims? Macron needs mental treatment," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday in an apparent reference to the French president's recent promise to fight radical Islamism. 

"What else can be said," he asked rhetorically, "about a head of state who does not understand religious freedom, who acts in this way against millions of people of a different religion in his country? First, a mind control".

According to Agence France-Presse, the Elysée Palace, which has found the comments of Turkish President  "unacceptable", is said to have called the French ambassador in Ankara for consultation.

"President Erdogan's statements," he stressed, "are unacceptable. Excesses and rudeness are not forms. We demand that Erdogan changes his policy because it is dangerous from all points of view. We do not engage in pointless polemics and we do not accept insults.

"Indignation and insult are not a method," Macron's office said, according to Reuters.

Earlier this month, Macron gave a historic speech on his strategy to counter what he described as the ways in which radical Islam has infiltrated French society. Some commentators said the speech reflected a nuanced approach, but others described it as offensive to Muslims.

It aims to strengthen secularism and consolidate republican principles in France and covers several points that may cause tensions with Turkey, such as tighter control of funding for mosques or a ban on imams training abroad.

The situation became particularly delicate after the murder of Professor Samuel Paty who was beheaded by an 18-year-old Chechen refugee after the educator presented cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a secondary school class on freedom of expression.

The battery of measures announced in recent days in France against radical Islamism following the beheading of a teacher will continue in the long term, the president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Tuesday, promising that his fight will continue to produce results because the "determination is total".

"Our fellow citizens expect facts, and those facts will intensify.
We have pointed out the enemy and explained the strategy. Those whose religion is Islam must be protected against radical Islam," he said in the Parisian outlying department of Seine-Saint-Denis, where he met with members of an anti-Islamist cell.

The government's desire to monitor what is published on the networks has led the Minister for Citizenship, Marlène Schiappa, to meet with representatives of platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Youtube so that they can assume their responsibility and propose cooperation with the police and gendarmerie in the fight against cyber-Islam.

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