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Turkey's Erdoğan: French vote reveals gravity of hostility towards Muslims
“The vote in France, where there are nearly 5 million Muslims, clearly showed that the extent of racism, discrimination and anti-Muslims sentiments has reached dangerous levels,” Erdoğan said on Friday at a conference on "Change in Muslim Societies and Role of Women" in İstanbul.
Accusing French President Nicolas Sarkozy of “trying to win [April's presidential] elections over hostility towards Turks and Muslims,” Erdoğan said Thursday's vote is meaningful in that the bill was approved with only 55 lawmakers in attendance, out of a total of 577.
“Mr. Sarkozy cannot find genocide in the history of Turkey. Once he looks into Turkish history, he cannot find anything other than Turks' tolerance, help and compassion,” Erdoğan said.
The Turkish prime minister also read excerpts from a 1526 letter sent by Ottoman Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent to French King Francis I in response to the French king's request for help after being captured by the Spanish King Charles V during the Battle of Pavia. The Ottoman sultan said in the letter he would help the French king.
Erdoğan said he had earlier presented a copy of Süleyman's letter to Sarkozy. “I think he did not read it.”
Erdoğan also accused Paris of committing “genocide” in Algeria, a former colony. “France massacred an estimated 15 percent of the Algerian population starting from 1945. This is genocide,” he said. “They were mercilessly martyred,” he said, adding that Algerians were burned in ovens.
Erdoğan also said President Sarkozy's father might have direct knowledge about the French “massacres” in Algeria.
“If the French president, Mr. Sarkozy, doesn't know about this genocide he should go and ask his father, Paul Sarkozy.”
“His father served in the French Legion in Algeria in the 1940s. I am sure he would have lots to tell his son about the French massacres in Algeria,” the Turkish premier said.
French legislators passed a bill making it a crime to deny that the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago constituted genocide despite Turkish opposition.
The bill drew strong criticism from Turkey, which denies the genocide label and insists the 1915 massacres occurred during civil unrest as the Ottoman Empire collapsed, with losses on both sides.
The French bill still needs Senate approval.
Opposition supports sanctions against France
Meanwhile, Turkey's main opposition party has also pledged full support to the government in its campaign against France. Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said on Friday that his party sees the issue as a “national problem” and will act in cooperation with the government on this matter. “France should get rid of this shame,” he said referring to the bill.
He said he voiced his support on measures against France during a visit he paid to Erdoğan on Wednesday.
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