Turkish president backs boycott of French goods as tensions escalate over cartoon row

PARIS/ANKARA: Turkish President

Tayyip Erdogan

asked his compatriots to stop buying French goods on Monday in the latest expression of anger in the Muslim world over images being displayed in

France

of the Prophet Muhammad.


In Bangladesh on Monday, protesters unfurled placards with a caricature of French President Emmanuel Macron and the words: “Macron is the enemy of peace”.

Erdogan said France was pursuing an anti-Islam agenda. “I am calling to all my citizens from here to never help French brands or buy them,” he said. In

Turkey

, French autos are among the highest selling cars, and French-Turkish bilateral trade overall was worth nearly $15 billion last year.

Erdogan on Monday joined a chorus of voices elsewhere calling for a boycott. In Kuwait city, a supermarket had stripped its shelves of L’Oreal cosmetics and skincare products after the cooperative union to which it belongs decided to stop stocking French goods. In Saudi Arabia and the UAE, calls for a boycott of French supermarket chain Carrefour were trending on social media.

Earlier, Erdogan had questioned the state of Macron’s mental health, prompting Paris to recall its ambassador in Ankara. “What is the problem of this person called Macron with Muslims and Islam? Macron needs treatment on a mental level,” Erdogan said on Saturday.

The row has its roots in October 16 attack when a Chechen origin man beheaded a French teacher who had shown pupils cartoons of Prophet Muhammad in a lesson on freedom of speech. Macron said he would redouble efforts to stop conservative Islamic beliefs subverting French values.

Saudi Arabia’s Council of Senior Scholars said insulting prophets had nothing to do with freedom of expression and only “served extremists”. Qatar condemned what it described as populist rhetoric inciting the abuse of religions. Iranian foreign minister

Mohammad Javad Zarif

tweeted that insulting Muslims is an “opportunistic abuse of freedom of speech”.

Several of France’s EU partners rallied around Macron. Italian PM Giuseppe Conte said Erdogan’s remarks directed at Macron were unacceptable. German foreign minister described Erdogan’s attacks as a new low. Dutch PM

Mark Rutte

said his country stands with France for freedom of speech and against extremism.