The President of France Emanuel Macron warned on Tuesday of Turkey’s “attempts to interfere” in the next French presidential election in 2022, but did not close the door on an improvement in relations with the Anchor.
“Obviously. There will be attempts to interfere in the next elections. “It has been written and the threats are not hidden,” Macron said when asked in a documentary about Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on France 5 television.
Referring to the controversy over the religious issue, which erupted after his speech in the autumn, in which he referred to “Islamist separatist tendencies”, Macron spoke out against “a policy of state lies reproduced by the Turkish state-controlled press”. as well as “by some large networks controlled by Qatar”.
Erdogan has already been accused of meddling in elections, especially in Germany, when he asked German-Turkish voters in 2017 to vote against Angela Merkel’s party.
“We have to be sober,” continued Emanuel Macron, whose relations with his Turkish counterpart were extremely strained before they began to thaw a few months ago.
“I pointed out at the beginning of the year that Erdogan wanted to return to the relationship. “I want to believe that this is possible,” said the French president, stressing that he was not “hostile to Turkey”.
“But I do not think we can go back to a relationship when there is ambiguity. “I do not want to return to a calm relationship, if there are such maneuvers from behind that continue,” he said.
“France has been very clear. “When there were unilateral actions in the eastern Mediterranean, we condemned them and took action by sending frigates,” Macron said, expressing regret that NATO was “not clear enough” with Ankara. “We need to clarify Turkey’s position in NATO,” he said.
However, “there must be a dialogue with Turkey, everything must be done so that it does not turn its back on Europe and move towards more religious extremism or geopolitical choices that are negative for us,” he continued.
“It is a partner in security issues, in immigration issues,” the French president recalled.
Stressing that Turkey welcomes more than three million Syrian refugees in its territory, Macron said he “has taken on its responsibilities”.
“We have to work with Turkey on the immigration issue. “If (the Turks) open the doors, we have three million Syrian refugees arriving in Europe,” he warned.
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