Turkey denounces Macron’s ‘unacceptable’ remarks

Ankara on March 24 denounced recent remarks by the French president about Turkey and its leader, calling them "unacceptable".

"We find the statements by French President [Emmanuel] Macron, which he gave in response to the deliberate questions asked in the program and are against the friendship and alliance between our countries, unacceptable," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a written statement.

Aksoy also said "unjust and inconsistent" statements were made regarding Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkey.

During an interview aired on the France5 TV channel on Tuesday, Macron claimed that Turkey was "attempting to interfere" in France's next presidential election in 2022.

He stressed that the TV program was deliberately prepared ahead of this week's EU summit and tried to erode the reality of European Turkey, but it is obvious that those claims cannot reach their goal.

Both with its regional policies and close bilateral ties with the member states, Turkey will continue to be effective on the European continent, NATO, and transatlantic relations as well as providing the largest contributions, according to Aksoy.

He said that Macron's claims with "certain judgments" that Turkey would interfere in France's presidential election next year are alienating foreign-origin communities living in the country and thus "dangerous".

No agenda on France's domestic politics

"Turkey doesn't have any agenda on France's domestic politics except prosperity, peace and harmony of the Turkish community with around 800,000 people living in the country," Aksoy stressed, adding that Turkey also expects France not to make itself an item of domestic politics especially at the times of elections....