Turkish President calls for boycott of French products

Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has called on Turks to boycott French goods, as relations between the NATO allies deteriorated over Paris’s hardened stance against radical Islam.

“As it has been said in France, ‘don’t buy Turkish-labelled goods’, I call on my people here. Never give credit to French-labelled goods, don’t buy them,” Erdogan said during a televised speech on Monday October 26, 2020.

Boycotts of French goods are under way in supermarkets in Qatar and Kuwait, with further calls to spurn French products in Jordan and other states.

Ties between Turkey and the West have been tense following the 2016 failed overthrow of Erdogan.

But ties with France have been further strained in recent years over issues including Libya, Syria and Ankara’s gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean.

Erdogan and Macron have been at loggerheads in recent months especially over France’s criticism of Turkey over Ankara’s actions in the war-torn countries, and the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Ankara is displeased with Macron’s policies toward Muslims, after the French leader announced a plan earlier this month to “liberate Islam in France from foreign influences”.

“European leaders should tell the French president to stop his hate campaign” against Muslims, Erdogan said.

There has also been growing anger in the Muslim world against Macron after he vowed France would not give up cartoons depicting Prophet Mohamed following the murder of a French teacher outside his school outside Paris.