Protesters hold a sign with a picture of French President Emmanuel Macron in Ankara, Turkey, on Oct. 27, 2020. On Oct. 20, Macron blamed radical Islam for the violence that led to the recent beheading of a teacher in a Paris suburb.
Turkey’s harsh condemnation of France’s reaction to the killing of a French teacher will help Ankara position itself as a bold leader of global political Islam, even if it risks harming Turkey’s economic ties with Paris. On Oct. 25, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, needed “mental treatment” due to his attitude toward Muslims in France, and called for a national boycott of all French consumer products. France has recalled its ambassador to Turkey in response to Erdogan’s comments. On Oct. 18, a Chechen refugee beheaded a teacher in a Paris suburb who had shown his class satirical drawings of the Prophet Mohammed.
