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Turkey condemns deadly knife attack in France’s Nice, foreign ministry says
In a statement, the ministry said Turkey stood in solidarity with the French people against violence and terrorism.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that it strongly condemned the deadly knife attack in the French city of Nice.
In a statement, the ministry said Turkey stood in solidarity with the French people against violence and terrorism.
Ankara strongly condemned Thursday’s “savage” knife attack in southern France that left three people dead, offering its “solidarity”, despite a running diplomatic spat with Paris.
Earlier on Wednesday Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vented his outrage at a “disgusting” cartoon in the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo depicting him looking up a woman’s skirt while drinking beer in his underpants.
Erdogan’s office vowed to take “legal and diplomatic action” while Turkey’s NTV television said Ankara had also summoned the second-most senior diplomat at the French embassy to express its “strong condemnation”.
Under normal circumstances, France’s ambassador would have been summoned, but he has been recalled to Paris for consultations in a further sign of the deteriorating diplomatic relations between the two North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO) allies.
The front cover Charlie Hebdo cartoon came out just days after Erdogan called for a boycott of French products and questioned President Emmanuel Macron’s sanity for promoting a drive against Islamic extremism.
Macron’s defence of the media’s right to mock religion, as exemplified by Charlie Hebdo’s blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, has stirred angry protests across Turkey and swathes of the Muslim world.
Erdogan said he had not personally seen the Charlie Hebdo caricature because he did not want to “give credit to such immoral publications.”
“I don’t need to say anything to those scoundrels who insult my beloved prophet on such a scale,” Erdogan said in a speech to his party’s lawmakers.
“I am sad and frustrated not because of this disgusting attack on me personally, but because of the impertinence taking aim at our prophet we love more than ourselves.”
Macron’s defence of Charlie Hebdo’s right to publish drawings of the prophet, which is forbidden under Islam, came after the brutal murder on October 16 of a French school teacher who had shown cartoons to pupils during a class discussion about freedom of speech.
Erdogan’s policies have put Turkey at growing odds with the European Union and Macron has become one of Turkish leader’s most vocal critics.
The two statesmen have sparred over the eastern Mediterranean as well as Turkey’s policies across the Middle East and -- most recently -- in the war between Azerbaijani and Armenian separatist forces in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Turkish Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun said that Islam cannot be used in the name of terrorism and condemned the attack.
“We call on the French leadership to avoid further inflammatory rhetoric against Muslims and focus, instead, on finding the perpetrators of this and other acts of violence,” Altun wrote on Twitter.
Altun also said Turkey would continue to confront any politician who insults its religion and values and renewed Turkey’s call for cooperation against terrorism and extremism.
Thursday’s attacks, on the birthday of the Prophet Mohammad, came at a time of growing Muslim anger at France’s defence of the right to publish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad and protesters have denounced France in street rallies in several Muslim-majority countries
A knife-wielding attacker killed three people in a suspected terrorist act at a church in the French city of Nice on Thursday, while a gunman was shot dead by police in a separate incident.