New French campaign against Erdogan’s evil Ottomanism

Ahmed Sami Abdelfattah

Tensions are rising between France and Turkey after French President Emmanuel Macron criticized human rights conditions in Turkey.

New French campaign

The London-based al-Arab newspaper ran a report on October 3 on a new French-led European campaign against Turkey.

The report focuses on the ongoing row between Ankara and Paris. The Turkish genocide against Armenians takes center stage in this row, according to al-Arab.

France insists to recognize the massacre carried out by the Ottoman state against the Armenians. This is causing tension in relations between Turkey and France.

According to the newspaper, France leads a new effort for changing European policies toward Turkey. Paris believes that Ankara practices a systematic blackmail of Europe as far as the refugee crisis is concerned, the newspaper said.

European policymakers believe that an intensification of the refugee crisis will lead to the rise of the far-right in Europe. This will inevitably negatively affect the unity of the European Union, in general, and European democracy, in particular.

Ankara replies

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu criticized the French president. He said Macron had violated all diplomatic traditions which make it necessary for politicians to respect other countries.

France tries, meanwhile, to formulate a new European policy to trim Ankara’s ability to use Turkish nationals as pressure cards in European states, especially in Germany where 4 million Turkish nationals live.

French escalation

France had escalated its opposition to Turkey several times in the past because of Turkish blackmail of Europe against the background of the refugee crisis.

Turkey has been trying to use the refugee crisis as a card for influencing European policies in a way that backs Turkey’s interests, especially in Idlib in Syria and in the Eastern Mediterranean region.

Turkey is aware of the confusion that besets the European political stage at present, particularly with the rise in the influence of the far-right. There are fears within the European continent that the refugee crisis will cause the far-right to gain ground on the political stage.

Turkey sinking

Turkish affairs specialist Mohamed Hamed said Turkey would not care about the French position, knowing that the decisions of the European Union are not made in Paris.

“Turkey is confident that other European states, such as Germany and Italy are influential too,” Hamed told The Reference.

He added that European states overlooking the Mediterranean are more negatively affected by the refugee crisis than others that do not overlook the Mediterranean.