Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier engaged in a verbal rant on issues related to Islam's status in Europe with French President Emmanuel Macron, which led to the further deterioration of bilateral ties between the two countries, as the duo has also been at odds over a number of geopolitical issues.
Addressing the nation on Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan focused his attention on Islamophobic incidents in Europe, along with other issues such as the country's vaccination drive, coronavirus fight, etc.
Relations between Turkey and france have hit an all-time low in recent months over President Emmanuel Macron's comments on Islam and controversial caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, apart from long-standing discrepancies between the two countries on a number of political matters like the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Turkey's oil and gas exploration bid in the Mediterranean, and others.
In early October, Macron announced a programme to fight what he referred to as “Islamist separatism”. In his speech, the president said France, which has the largest Muslim population across Europe, has to wake up to the hazards of “Islamist separatism”, with the latter, he emotionally recounted, holding its laws above all others, thereby creating a “counter-society”.
The government's plan was meant to address the interstate terrorism issue at large, following the numerous terrorist attacks france has seen in recent years.
A little more than two weeks…
