Turkey’s parliament showed rareunity on Tuesday in condemning remarks by French PresidentEmmanuel Macron in a row about cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad,calling his comments “sick rhetoric” with the potential to causea global rupture.
Four parties including the ruling AK Party, their allies theNationalist Movement Party (MHP), the secularist main oppositionRepublican People’s Party (CHP) and the Iyi Party, issued ajoint declaration saying Macron’s remarks could cause”destructive conflicts” among people of different beliefs.
The dispute follows an attack outside a French school onOct. 16 in which a man of Chechen origin beheaded Samuel Paty, ateacher who had shown pupils the cartoons in a civics lesson onfreedom of speech.
The cartoons, considered blasphemous by Muslims, have beendisplayed in France in solidarity and Macron has said he wouldredouble efforts to stop conservative Islamic beliefs subvertingFrench values, angering many Muslims countries.
“With his reckless actions under the pretence of ‘supportingfreedom of expression’, (Macron) is triggering a conflict,rupture whose global repercussions can deeply and negativelyimpact people of all beliefs,” the four parties said in theirjoint statement.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) was the onlyparliamentary party not part of the declaration.
President Tayyip Erdogan sharply criticised Macron at theweekend, saying the French leader needed a mental health check,prompting France to recall its ambassador from Ankara. OnMonday, Erdogan urged a boycott of French products.
Several of France’s partners in the European Union ralliedround the French leader. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Contesaid Erdogan’s remarks about Macron were unacceptable.
Turkey and France, NATO members, have been at odds over ahost of issues, from Syria and Libya, maritime jurisdiction inthe eastern Mediterranean, and the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
