Justice and Development (AK) Party spokesman Ömer Çelik
Turkey's ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party on Wednesday criticized French President Emmanuel Macron for his remarks targeting Turkey and its EU membership process.
"We want to hear a commonsense statement from Macron on Turkey and we would also like to remind Macron how inconvenient it is to mix Islam and terror," said party spokesman Ömer Çelik, speaking at a news conference following the AK Party's central executive board meeting.
During the Ambassadors Conference in Paris on Monday, Macron said “to fight Islamist terrorism, we created a new law in France”.
He also questioned Turkey's EU membership.
Turkey “deeply regrets” comments made by French President Emmanuel Macron at the ambassadors’ dinner held in Paris regarding the EU accession process on Monday, according to a statement by the Turkish Foreign Ministry. “For French President Emmanuel Macron to say that our country is anti-EU does not jibe with reality,” the statement read."They’re far from understanding the realities of Turkey" “Our country went through a very difficult phase following the July 15 coup attempt, however, during last month alone, the state of emergency was lifted and Turkey entered a normalized phase and moved toward a presidential system that allows it to take strides forward especially with regards to EU reforms,” the statement continued. “Macron’s Turkey statements, despite our repeated explanations, show once more how far he is from understanding the realities of Turkey,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.The statement reiterated that Turkey is an indivisible part of Europe from a political, geographical and historical perspective.Turkish minister to attend EU foreign ministers meetingTies to Russia no alternative to US, EU: Turkish FMEU for stable economic development in Turkey: Germany“Islamic terror” remark caught our attention The statement issued by the foreign ministry criticized Macron’s repeated use of the term “Islamic terror” during his speech. “We would like to reiterate one more time what a grave error it is to associate a religion with such acts despite the fact that terror has no religion, nation or race
Turkey ‘deeply regrets’ Macron remarks on its accession to EU
"Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has a pan-Islamic project that is contrary to our European values.”
Macron said there was a need to build a strategic partnership with Turkey instead of granting it EU membership.
"We need to build a strategic partnership with Russia and Turkey because they are two important powers for our collective security; they must be tied to Europe," he said.
"President Erdoğan's Turkey is not President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's Turkey anymore," he added.
Referring to a plan by Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders to hold a Prophet Muhammad cartoon competition, Çelik said "such provocative attacks cause these racists and fascists to gain a place in European politics”.
"Europe’s ‘Daesh’ are its far-right parties…There is no difference between the leaders of the Daesh terrorist group and fascists like Dutch far-right leader Wilders.
"Therefore, if they are taking measures against Daesh, they must take such measures against these racists. This is not something to be evaluated in the context of freedom of thought," he said.
Wilders' anti-Islam Party for Freedom had previously called for the Quran to be banned.