Turkey leads from the front in protesting France

 Between its ambitions to be the center of the Sunni Muslim world and the pent-up tensions with France, Erdogan’s voice is the loudest one denouncing Macron.

 Relations between the two NATO members Turkey and France have been shaky for a while. But it hit a new low with the events following the brutal beheading of a French school teacher who showed his class the controversial Charlie Hebdo cartoons. As French President Emmanuel Macron called for an “enlightened Islam” that was in line with the secular values of the country, Muslims across the world denounced his attempt to paint Islam in a negative light.

 None was louder in his rebuke than Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He launched a personal attack on Macron, saying he needed “mental treatment” after which France recalled its ambassador from Turkey. He followed this up with a call to boycott France, French products and economy similar to what was happening in other Muslim countries. Erdogan has now also threatened to sue Charlie Hebdo over a raunchy political cartoon they drew of him.

 While there has been anger across the Muslim world against France, Erdogan has taken up the cudgels like no other. This is in line with his naked ambition to bring about a second coming of the Ottoman Empire and displace Saudi Arabia is the leader of the Sunni world. This is why Turkey has constantly found itself on the opposite side of the Saudi-UAE equation over many issues like Iran, Libya, and Qatar.

 But being the savior of the religion is just a convenient diving board for Turkey to start a righteous row with France, the relationship with whom has soured in the past year. Even before that the two countries were on the opposite side of the civil war in Libya. But this year things for especially tense with Turkey sending its gas exploration ships to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and France sending her warships in a show of support for EU members Greece and Cyprus. In the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, France criticized Turkey’s “reckless” support for the Azeri military.

 

The controversy over the Charlie Hebdo cartoons gives Turkey the opportunity to vent all this residual anger while making it looks like it is championing the cause of the Islamic world.