Daily US Times: France has recalled its ambassador to Turkey after the Turkish President insulted his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Mr Macron needed a mental health check for fight radical Islam and pledging to protect secular values.
The French President has spoken out forcefully on these issues after a teacher in France was murdered for showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in class.
Earlier this week, he said France “will not give up our cartoons”.
Depictions of the Prophet Muhammad can cause serious offence to Muslims across the world because Islamic tradition explicitly forbids images of Muhammad and Allah (God).
But state secularism – or laïcité – is central to France’s national identity. Curbing freedom of expression to protect the feelings of one particular community, France says, undermines the country’s unity.
Responding to the French President’s campaign to defend such values Mr Erdogan said in a speech on Saturday: “Macron needs treatment on a mental level.”
“What else can be said to a head of state who does not understand freedom of belief and who behaves in this way to millions of people living in his country who are members of a different faith?” the Turkish President said.
Mr Erdogan went on to ask: “What’s the problem of the individual called Macron with Islam and with the Muslims?”
A French presidential official told that France’s ambassador to Turkey was being recalled for consultations, and would be meeting President Macron.
The official said: “President Erdogan’s comments are unacceptable. Excess and rudeness are not a method. We demand that Erdogan change the course of his policy because it is dangerous in every respect.”
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