Turkey’s foreign minister has accused French President Emmanuel Macron of being a “sponsor of terrorism”, dismissing the French leader’s criticism of Turkey’s Syria offensive.
Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters that Mr. Macron wanted to be the leader of Europe but was “wobbling”.
Last month Mr. Macron hosted a senior official from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Turkey views a section of the group – the YPG – as terrorists.
Earlier on Thursday, Mr. Macron said he stood by comments made three weeks ago when he described NATO as “brain dead”.
He said members of the alliance needed a “wake-up call” as they were no longer co-operating on a range of key issues.
He also criticised NATO’s failure to respond to the offensive by Turkey – a NATO member – in northern Syria.
Addressing reporters in parliament on Thursday, Mr. Cavusoglu said: “He [Macron] is already the sponsor of the terrorist organisation and constantly hosts them at the Elysee. If he says his ally is the terrorist organisation… there is really nothing more to say.
“Right now, there is a void in Europe, [Macron] is trying to be its leader, but leadership comes naturally.”
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Turkey was angered when Mr. Macron held talks in Paris on 8 October with SDF spokeswoman Jihane Ahmed.
Mr. Macron’s office said the meeting was to express France’s solidarity with the SDF in its fight against the Islamic State group and also to reiterate concerns about the prospect of a Turkish military operation in Syria.
A day later, Turkey launched an offensive in northern Syria to create a “safe zone” cleared of Kurdish militias.
Ties between Turkey and its Nato allies have been under strain since Ankara bought the advanced Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system earlier this year.
Mr. Macron was speaking at a news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, a week before alliance leaders meet in the UK for its 70th anniversary.
In a 7 November interview, Mr. Macron stressed what he saw as a waning commitment to the transatlantic alliance by its main guarantor, the US. Allies said at the time they disagreed with his assessment.
“I totally stand by raising these ambiguities because I believe it was irresponsible of us to keep talking about financial and technical matters given the stakes we currently face,” he said on Thursday.
“A wake-up call was necessary. I’m glad it was delivered, and I’m glad everyone now thinks we should rather think about our strategic goals.”
On Turkey, he said he respected its security interests after it suffered “many terrorist attacks on its soil”.
But he added: “One cannot on one hand say that we are allies, and with respect to this demand our solidarity; and on the other hand, put its allies in the face of a military offensive done as a ‘fait accompli’, which endangers the action of the coalition against Islamic State, which NATO is part of.”
Mr. Macron said NATO needed to clarify who or what the alliance stood against, adding that he disagreed that Russia or China were the enemies.
President Macron is not one for backing down and he insists that his criticism of Nato has had an impact.
Source: BBC
