Originally published 2020-10-24.
On 24 October 2020, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told a party meeting in Kayseri, central Turkey, that French President Emmanuel Macron needs treatment on a mental level
because of the way he talked about Muslims and Islam. France called the remark unacceptable and recalled its ambassador from Ankara for consultations, an unusual step between two NATO allies.
The insult did not come out of nowhere. It followed Macron's speech on what he called "Islamist separatism", the murder of a French teacher, and a year of growing rivalry between Paris and Ankara over Libya and the Eastern Mediterranean. Here is the background, what each side said, and what happened next.
What Erdoğan said, and where
Erdoğan was speaking at a provincial congress of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Kayseri. He asked what Macron's "problem" with Muslims and Islam was, and suggested that a head of state who treated millions of people of another faith in his country this way should have his mental health checked. He also argued that Macron did not understand freedom of belief.
The phrase spread quickly in English as Erdoğan saying Macron needed "mental checks". It was a political insult, not a medical opinion, and it is worth treating it that way. Using mental health as a slur says nothing about either leader's actual health and tends to stigmatise people who really do need care.
Two days later, on 26 October, Erdoğan went further and urged Turks not to buy French products, joining calls for a boycott that were already circulating in several Muslim-majority countries.
Macron's speech on "Islamist separatism"
The trigger was a speech Macron gave on 2 October 2020 in Les Mureaux, west of Paris. He said France must fight "Islamist separatism", which he described as an attempt by radical groups to build a parallel order in some communities, with their own rules on schooling, sport and the role of women, outside the values of the French Republic. In the same speech he described Islam as a religion "in crisis" around the world, a phrase that caused offence among many Muslims.
Macron announced a bill to strengthen France's 1905 law separating church and state. It was later passed in 2021 as the law "reinforcing respect for the principles of the Republic". Among other things it tightened rules on home schooling, required associations receiving large foreign donations to declare them, gave authorities more power to close places of worship that promote hatred or violence, and banned virginity certificates.
Erdoğan had called the plan a "clear provocation" as early as 6 October, weeks before the Kayseri remark.
How many Muslims live in France?
France does not record religion in its census, so all figures are estimates. They range from about 5% in some surveys to around 10% of adults in recent work by the national statistics office INSEE. Most estimates put the number at several million people, making France home to one of the largest Muslim communities in western Europe. The great majority are ordinary citizens who have nothing to do with extremism, a point Macron himself made in his speech, though critics said his wording blurred that line.
The murder of Samuel Paty
Two weeks after the Les Mureaux speech, on 16 October 2020, history and geography teacher Samuel Paty was murdered and beheaded near his school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, outside Paris. His killer, Abdoullakh Anzorov, was an 18-year-old of Chechen origin who had come to France as a child with refugee status. Police shot him dead minutes later.
Paty had shown cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, originally published by Charlie Hebdo, during a civics lesson on freedom of expression, part of the national curriculum. An online campaign against him, built partly on a false account from a pupil who had not even been in the class, preceded the attack.
Macron called it a typical Islamist terrorist attack and promised that France would not give up its cartoons or its freedom of speech. He led a national tribute to Paty at the Sorbonne. That defence of the right to publish caricatures was what many protesters abroad reacted to, and the French presidency noted that Erdoğan had sent no condolences after the killing.
France's reaction and the wider fallout
The Élysée Palace said that excess and rudeness were not a method and that France would not accept insults. It recalled its ambassador to Turkey for consultations and asked Ankara to change what it called a dangerous policy. Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and other European governments publicly backed Macron.
In the following days, French goods were pulled from some supermarket shelves in Kuwait, Qatar and Jordan, and protests against Macron took place in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya and elsewhere. Charlie Hebdo responded with a cover caricaturing Erdoğan, and Turkey threatened legal and diplomatic action.
On 29 October 2020, a knife attack at the Notre-Dame basilica in Nice killed three people, adding to the tension and to France's sense that it was under sustained threat.
A rivalry that was already heated
By October 2020 France and Turkey were already at odds on several fronts. In the Eastern Mediterranean, Turkey was sending survey ships to search for gas in waters claimed by Greece and Cyprus. France backed Athens and Nicosia and sent naval vessels and fighter jets to the region for joint exercises.
In Libya, France criticised Turkey's military support for the Tripoli-based government, including the transfer of Syrian fighters. In June 2020, France said Turkish warships had harassed a French frigate that tried to inspect a cargo ship suspected of breaking the UN arms embargo on Libya. Turkey denied this and said the ship carried humanitarian aid. NATO opened an inquiry, and France suspended its role in a NATO naval mission in protest.
Personal jabs were nothing new either. In 2019 Macron had described NATO as "brain dead" after Turkey's offensive in north-east Syria, and Erdoğan had replied that Macron himself should check whether he was brain dead.
Domestic politics on both sides
France has suffered a long series of jihadist attacks since 2015, including the Charlie Hebdo shooting, the November 2015 Paris attacks and the 2016 Nice truck attack, which together killed well over 250 people. Security and the place of religion in public life are central political issues there. Some critics argued that Macron's tougher tone was partly aimed at the 2022 presidential race, in which his main challenger was again Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally. Macron beat Le Pen in the April 2022 run-off.
In Turkey, Erdoğan has positioned himself as a defender of Muslims abroad. Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 on a strict form of secularism, written into the constitution in 1937, under which the state tightly controlled religion. Headscarves were banned for decades in universities and public offices. Under Erdoğan's AKP, those restrictions were lifted and religion gained a much more visible role in public life. Standing up to a Western leader over Islam plays well with his conservative base.
What happened next
The war of words cooled within months. The French ambassador returned to Ankara, and in 2021 Macron and Erdoğan held calls and met in person at a NATO summit, agreeing to try to improve relations. Disagreements over Libya, the Eastern Mediterranean and the role of religion did not disappear, but both governments stepped back from open insults.
The episode remains a clear example of how a domestic debate in one country can quickly turn into an international row, especially when religion, free speech and an existing geopolitical rivalry collide.
Sources: Al Jazeera, 24 October 2020: Erdogan says Macron needs treatment over attitude to Muslims; Associated Press via Local10, 24 October 2020: France reacts after Erdogan questions Macron's mental health; Wikipedia: Murder of Samuel Paty; Wikipedia: France–Turkey relations; Wikipedia: Islam in France; Wikipedia: Secularism in Turkey; Al Jazeera, 1 July 2020: France suspends role in NATO naval mission.
COMMENTS