DM Monitoring
ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday he hoped France would soon get rid of President Emmanuel Macron, describing him as a burden on France which was enduring dangerous times. Ties between Turkey and France have been particularly tense in recent months over policy differences on Syria and the publishing of caricatures about Prophet Mohammad in France. Ankara and Paris have traded accusations about their roles in the Nagorno-Karabkah conflict.
“Macron is a burden on France. Macron and France are going through a very dangerous period actually. My hope is that France gets rid of the Macron trouble as soon as possible,” Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul after Friday prayers.
In October, Macron laid out a plan to tackle what he termed “Islamist separatism”, as he described Islam as a religion in crisis across the world comments that upset Muslims in France and globally. France is home to the largest Muslim minority population in Europe, and some fear being collectively punished after a series of attacks in recent months.
On October 20, France ordered the temporary closure of a mosque outside Paris as part of a crackdown on people who are suspected of inciting hatred, after the killing of teacher Samuel Paty, who had shown his class caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. The Grand Mosque of Pantin, in a low-income suburb on the capital’s northeastern outskirts, had shared a video on its Facebook page before the attack that vented hatred against Paty, who was beheaded in broad daylight near his school.
