Emmanuel Macron warned on Tuesday against Turkey’s “attempts to interfere” in the next French presidential election in 2022, without closing the door to an improvement in relations with Ankara, which have been appalling for more than a year. “Obviously. There will be attempts to interfere with the next election. It is written, and the threats are not veiled ”, declared the head of state, questioned within the framework of a documentary of the emission. C in the Air of the France 5 television channel on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Referring to the burning controversy on the religious question, triggered after his speech in the autumn on “Islamist separatism”, the lcoataire of the Élysée denounced “a policy of state lies relayed by the press organs controlled by the Turkish State ”, as well as“ by certain large chains controlled by Qatar ”. Recep Tayyip Erdogan has already been accused of electoral interference, especially in Germany, when he asked German-Turkish voters to vote against Angela Merkel’s party in 2017.
“We have to be very clear-headed,” continued Emmanuel Macron, whose relations with his Turkish counterpart were extremely strained before a thaw began a few months ago. “I have noted since the start of the year Erdogan’s desire to re-engage in the relationship. I want to believe that it is possible ”, declared the French president, defending himself of any“ animosity towards Turkey ”. “But I think you can’t re-engage (a relationship) when there are ambiguities. I do not want to re-engage in a peaceful relationship if there is behind such maneuvers that continue, ”he said.
“We need a dialogue with Turkey”
Bilateral relations deteriorated with the Turkish offensive in October 2019 against Kurdish forces in Syria, allies of the West. Turkish interventionism in Libya, in the eastern Mediterranean (where an incident between Turkish and French buildings in June 2020) and French policy against Islamic extremism then deepened antagonisms between Paris and Ankara. “France has been very clear. When there were unilateral acts in the Eastern Mediterranean, we condemned them and we acted by sending frigates “, underlined Emmanuel Macron, deploring that NATO is” not sufficiently clear “with Ankara. “We need to clarify Turkey’s place in NATO,” he said.
However, “we need a dialogue with Turkey, we must do everything so that it does not turn its back on Europe and go towards more religious extremism or negative geopolitical choices for us,” he said. he continued. “It is a partner on security issues, on migration issues,” recalled the French president. The EU and Turkey concluded a migration agreement in 2016, giving Ankara the management of illegal immigration. Stressing that Turkey welcomed on its soil more than three million Syrian refugees, Emmanuel Macron considered that it had “taken its responsibilities”. “On the migration issue, we have to work with Turkey. If they (the Turks) open the doors, you have three million Syrian refugees arriving in Europe, ”he warned.
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