France has denounced Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan for suggesting that President Emmanuel Macron needs “some sort of mental treatment” over his treatment of Muslims in his country.
“What is Macron’s problem with Islam? What is his problem with Muslims?” Erdogan said during a Justice and Development Party meeting in Kayseri on Saturday, according to CNN.
“Macron needs some sort of mental treatment. What else is there to say about a head of state who doesn’t believe in the freedom of religion and behaves this way against the millions of people of different faiths living in his own country?” he added.
Macron has promised to crack down on radical Islamism in France after Samuel Paty, a 47-year-old history teacher, was beheaded outside Paris on Oct. 16. He had taught a class on freedom of expression during which he used caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed from satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
The slaying at the hands of 18-year-old Chechen refugee Abdoulakh Anzorov has prompted massive protests in France and prompted a swift crackdown on radical Islamic groups by authorities.
France slammed Erdogan over his “unacceptable” comments.
“Excess and rudeness are not a method. We demand that Erdogan change the course of his policy because it is dangerous in every way. We do not enter into unnecessary polemics and do not accept insults,” a Macron rep told CNN.
The spokesperson added that France was recalling its ambassador to Ankara for an “evaluation of the ongoing situation,” according to the network.
Meanwhile, Erdogan on Monday joined calls for a boycott of French goods in the escalating standoff between France and Muslim countries over Islam and freedom of speech.
“Never give credit to French-labeled goods, don’t buy them,” Erdogan said during a televised speech in Ankara, Agence France-Presse reported.
Erdogan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, denounced the “monstrous murder” of Paty, adding that “nothing” could justify the attack.
French products have already been removed from supermarket shelves in Qatar and Kuwait, among other Gulf states, while in Syria people have burned pictures of Macron and French flags have been burned in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.
As the backlash over France’s reaction to the killing mounted, European leaders rallied behind Macron.
“They are defamatory comments that are completely unacceptable, particularly against the backdrop of the horrific murder of the French teacher Samuel Paty by an Islamist fanatic,” said Steffen Seibert, spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Also expressing support for France were the prime ministers of Italy, the Netherlands and Greece, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
“President Erdogan’s words addressing President @EmmanuelMacron are unacceptable,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in a tweet, adding that the Netherlands stood “for the freedom of speech and against extremism and radicalism.”
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said that “personal insults don’t help the positive agenda the EU wants to have with Turkey but pushes solutions further away.”
Erdogan compared the treatment of Muslims in Europe to that of Jews before World War II, saying they were the object of a “lynching campaign,” according to AFP.
“You are in a real sense fascists, you are in a real sense the links in the chain of Nazism,” he said. “European leaders should tell the French president to stop his hate campaign” against Muslims.