TURKEY VS FRANCE OVER MURDERED TEACHER

Turkey’s Erdogan urges French goods boycott amid Islam row

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on Turks to boycott French goods amid a row over France’s tougher stance on radical Islam.

In a televised speech, he urged world leaders to protect Muslims “if there is oppression against Muslims in France”.

Mr Erdogan has angrily criticised French President Emmanuel Macron for pledging to defend secularism against radical Islam.

It comes after a teacher was killed for showing Prophet Muhammad cartoons.

Samuel Paty was beheaded on 16 October by 18-year-old Abdullakh Anzorov outside Paris. France “will not give up our cartoons”, President Macron said earlier this week.

Depictions of the Prophet Muhammad are widely regarded as taboo in Islam, and are offensive to many Muslims.

But state secularism – or laïcité – is central to France’s national identity. Curbing freedom of expression to protect the feelings of one particular community undermines unity, the state says.

Mr Erdogan called for the boycott in a televised speech on Monday.

“Never give credit to French-labelled goods, don’t buy them,” he said in the capital Ankara.

He said Muslims are now “subjected to a lynch campaign similar to that against Jews in Europe before World War II”, adding that “European leaders should tell the French president to stop his hate campaign”.

Over the weekend, Mr Erdogan said Mr Macron needed a mental health check for speaking out so forcefully on Islam – comments that caused France to recall its ambassador to Turkey for consultations.

It came after Mr Macron pledged to defend secularism and tackle radical Islam in the wake of the killing of Mr Paty.https://emp.bbc.com/emp/SMPj/2.35.13/iframe.htmlmedia captionRallies in Paris, Toulouse, Lyon and other French cities in support of Samuel Paty

Two weeks before the attack, Mr Macron described Islam as a religion “in crisis” and announced new measures to tackle what he called “Islamist separatism”.

France has Western Europe’s largest Muslim population, and some accuse the authorities of using secularism to target them.

European leaders have come out in support of France. Germany expressed “solidarity” with Mr Macron after the Turkish president’s comments, with government spokesman Steffen Seibert calling the remarks “defamatory” and “completely unacceptable” and foreign minister Heiko Maas calling Mr Erdogan’s personal attacks “a particular low point”.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the Netherlands “stands firmly with France and for the collective values of the European Union”, while Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte also expressed his “full solidarity” with Mr Macron.

“Personal insults do not help the positive agenda that the EU wants to pursue with Turkey,” he wrote in a tweet.

But Turkey is not the only country to criticise Mr Macron’s comments. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan accused the French president of “attacking Islam” in a tweet on Sunday, while French products have been removed from some shops in Kuwait, Jordan and Qatar. There have also been protests in Iraq, Libya, Syria and the Gaza Strip.

A placard placed in a supermarket in Amman, Jordan tells people that French products are being boycotted

Citing Turkey’s statistical institute, Reuters news agency reports that France is the 10th biggest source of imports into Turkey. The French company Renault is reportedly one of the leading car brands by sales in the country.

MORE ON THE FRANCE TEACHER THAT WAS BEHEADED WEEKS AGO

France teacher attack: Rallies held to support beheaded Samuel Paty

Rallies are being held across France in support of Samuel Paty, the teacher beheaded after showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a lesson.

People in the Place de la République in Paris carried the slogan “Je suis enseignant” (I am a teacher), with PM Jean Castex saying: “We are France!”

A man named as Abdoulakh A was shot dead by police on Friday after killing Mr Paty close to his school near Paris.

An 11th person has been arrested as part of the investigation.

No details have been given about the arrest. Four close relatives of the suspect were detained shortly after the killing. Six more people were held on Saturday, including the father of a pupil at the school and a preacher described by French media as a radical Islamist.

President Emmanuel Macron said the attack bore all the hallmarks of an “Islamist terrorist attack” and the teacher had been murdered because he “taught freedom of expression”.

Where are the rallies taking place?

The Place de la République in Paris filled with people rallying in support of Mr Paty. Mr Castex and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo joined them.

It was in the square that 1.5 million people protested following the deadly attack in 2015 on the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, after it had published the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

One protester on Sunday carried a sign reading “zero tolerance to all enemies of the Republic”, another “I am a professor. I’m thinking of you, Samuel.”

Samuel Paty, a well-liked teacher, had been threatened over showing the cartoons

Another told Le Figaro she was a French Muslim who was at the rally to express her disgust at the killing.

A minute’s silence was followed by the playing of the Marseillaise. All the protesters were wearing masks to protect from coronavirus.

Mr Castex tweeted the rendition of the anthem, along with the words “you do not scare us… we are France!”

Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said France would succeed in defeating the enemies of democracy if it were united and that all teachers in France needed support.

In Lille, people carried banners and placards with the simple words “I am Samuel”.

Thousands of people also gathered in Place Bellecour in Lyon to pay their respects, with another large turnout in Nantes.

Demonstrations are also being held in Toulouse, Strasbourg, Marseille, Bordeaux and elsewhere.

“They will not behead the Republic”

In addition to Sunday’s demonstrations, there will be a national tribute paid to Mr Paty, 47, on Wednesday.

On Saturday, Tareq Oubrou, imam of a mosque in Bordeaux, told France Inter: “A civilisation does not kill an innocent person, barbarism does.”

What happened on Friday?

Anti-terrorism prosecutor Jean-François Ricard said that the suspect, who lived in the Normandy town of Évreux, about 100km (60 miles) from the murder scene, went to Mr Paty’s school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine on Friday afternoon and asked students to point out the teacher.

Abdoulakh A, an 18-year-old born in Moscow of Chechen origin, had no apparent connection with the teacher or the school.

He followed Mr Paty as he walked home from work. The suspect used a knife to attack the teacher in the head, and then beheaded him. “What happened is beyond words”

Witnesses are said to have heard the attacker shout “Allahu Akbar”, or “God is Greatest”.

As police approached him, he fired at them with an airgun. Officers returned fire, hitting him nine times. A 30cm-long (12in) blade was found close by.

Authorities said the man had been before courts but only on minor misdemeanour charges.

What’s the latest in the investigation?

Mr Ricard said Mr Paty had been the target of threats since he showed the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a class about freedom of speech, in relation to the Charlie Hebdo case.

A trial over the 2015 attack on the magazine is currently under way.

As he had done in similar lessons in recent years, Mr Paty, a history and geography teacher, advised Muslim students to look away if they thought they might be offended.

A parent of one of the pupils reacted angrily, and went to the school to complain.

He and another man who accompanied him – Abdelhakim Sefrioui, a preacher and activist – made videos calling Mr Paty a “voyou” (thug) and demanding his suspension.

Mr Sefrioui has reportedly been known to French intelligence services for years. Both he and the father are now in custody

Exit mobile version