Turkey’s President Erdogan calls for boycott of French goods

As the standoff between France and Muslim countries gathered momentum Monday over Islam and freedom of speech, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan added his voice to the calls for a boycott of French goods.

Erdogan has led the charge against President Emmanuel Macron over his comments following the beheading of a French schoolteacher who had shown his class cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

On Monday, Erdogan said during a televised speech in Ankara: “Never give credit to French-labelled goods, don’t buy them.”

The New Arab reported late Monday that French goods have already been pulled from supermarket shelves in Qatar and Kuwait, among other Gulf states, whereas in Syria people have burned pictures of Macron and French flags have been torched in the Libyan capital Tripoli.

The October 16 beheading of high-school teacher Samuel Paty by a Chechen extremist caused deep shock in France.

Paty had shown his pupils some of the Prophet Mohammed cartoons over which 12 people were massacred at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in 2015.

Following Paty’s murder, Macron came out in defense of free speech and France’s secular values, vowing that the country “will not give up cartoons.”

As the backlash over France’s reaction widened, European leaders, rallied behind Macron, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the prime ministers of the Netherlands and Greece.