On Monday, Turkey condemned the beheading of French language teacher Samuel Patti after France expressed disappointment over Ankara’s lack of official conviction.
We strongly condemn the brutal murder of Samuel Patty in France and reject this barbarism. A spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, “There is nothing legitimate in this killing Ibrahim Kalin tweeted.
Patty was assaulted in the street and killed two weeks ago for showing his students caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, during a semester on freedom of expression.
French President Emmanuel Macron has angered Muslim-majority countries including officially secular Turkey, with a hardline stance against Islam that began to emerge before Bati’s murder.
After Erdogan repeatedly called for Macron to undergo psychological tests, Paris responded by summoning its ambassador to Ankara.
On Sunday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian expressed his disappointment that Turkey had not issued a conviction for the killing of the teacher.
At the same time calin defend Muslims were angry at the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace.
“Some people may not understand how we love our prophet more than ourselves. They may not revolve around how we view insulting him as an insult to us.
“They might call our affection” bigotry. That’s their misfortune, “Kalin said.
He added, “We will explain this to them persistently and in the best possible way.”
After Le Drian’s remarks on Sunday, the Turkish foreign ministry said the country was “grieving” at the death of Bati, a message it conveyed to the French authorities, its ambassador to Paris.
Turkey joins the calls to boycott French goods
Meanwhile, on Monday, Turkish President Erdogan joined calls to boycott French goods, leading to an escalation of the confrontation between France and Muslim countries over Islam and freedom of expression.
Erdogan led the accusation against President Macron for defending mockery of religion as part of freedom of expression in the wake of the killing of a teacher.
On Monday, the Turkish leader added his voice to calls in the Arab world for citizens to reject French goods.
During a televised speech in Ankara, Erdogan said: “Do not give credit to goods bearing French marks, and do not buy them.”
French goods have already been pulled from store shelves in Qatar and Kuwait, among other Gulf states, while people in Syria have burned pictures of Macron and French flags have been torched in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
