Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday accused his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron of “colonial” aims in Lebanon and called his recent visit to Beirut a “spectacle”, amid growing tensions between Ankara and Paris. “What Macron and company want is to restore colonial order (in Lebanon),” Recep Erdogan said during a speech in Ankara. "We are not chasing photos or performing in front of the cameras that interests us," he added.
The Turkish head of state was referring to Emmanuel Macron's high-profile trip to Beirut last week, after an explosion which, on August 4, left 171 dead and more than 6,500 injured and devastated the Lebanese capital. While the Turkish president did not personally visit Beirut, he dispatched his vice president and chief diplomat there last week.
Growing tensions between Turkey and France
Lebanon was under French mandate from 1920 until its independence in 1943. Before that, it was under Ottoman rule for four centuries. Recep Erdogan's virulent attacks come against a backdrop of growing tensions between Turkey and France, linked in particular to divergent interests in Libya and the eastern Mediterranean.
Turkish searches for hydrocarbons in this maritime area have aroused the wrath of Greece and the European Union. Supporting Athens, Paris denounced Ankara's “unilateral” actions and announced Thursday that it had temporarily strengthened its Eastern Mediterranean military presence with the deployment of two planes and two warships.
The pro-government Turkish press greeted the news with indignation, accusing France of "overstepping the line" and "seeking war". Recep Erdogan did not directly comment on the French decision on Thursday, but he attacked without naming a "country which has no coast in the eastern Mediterranean", summoning it "not to believe itself larger than 'he is'.
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- World
- Recep Tayyip Erdogan
- Emmanuel Macron
- Beirut
- Turkey
- Lebanon