In what has now been deemed an insult, the Turkish president disparagingly referenced the rhetoric of French President Macron about NATO. The latter earlier lamented the lack of strategic coordination between Europe and the United States, referring to the alliance's current state as “cerebral death”.
The French government has summoned the Turkish envoy in Paris over what it's dubbed as “insults” expressed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who took a swipe at Emmanuel Macron saying he was suffering “brain death”.
“This is not a statement, these are insults”, an Élysee official earlier said voicing an intention to speak to the ambassador and adding that France “had no comment to make on these insults”.
During a press conference with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg in Paris on Thursday, Macron, one of the staunchest critics of Turkey's recent operation in northeastern Syria, said Ankara had thereby presented a “fait accompli” to its NATO allies, with the offensive “endangering the actions of the anti-IS coalition”.
Shortly thereafter, in a televised speech, Erdogan hit back urging the French politician to “have his own brain death checked”.
“These statements are suitable only to people like you who are in a state of brain death”, Erdogan said. “You know how to show off but you cannot even properly pay for NATO. You are a novice”, he rounded off bluntly.
The verbal spat precedes a testy NATO summit in…
