Turkey calls for boycott of French goods amid Macron row

ANKARA: 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 which hurt the sentiments of Muslims worldwide.

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.

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.

The October 16 beheading of high-school teacher Samuel Paty by a Chechen extremist caused deep shock in France. 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.”

As the backlash over France’s reaction widened, European leaders rallied behind Macron. German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned Erdogan’s “defamatory” remarks about the French leader. The prime ministers of 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.”

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, calling on Europe to end its “Macron-led hate campaign” against Muslims. 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. Macron has also drawn fire in other Muslim-majority countries.

Prime Minister Imran Khan accused Macron of “attacking Islam,” while the Palestinian Hamas, the Taliban, the Lebanese movement Hezbollah and Morocco have also spoken out against France. Fresh anti-France protests are planned Monday in the Gaza Strip, and 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.”