World leaders, schoolyard insults.
French President Emmanuel Macron is taking his ambassador and going home Saturday after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he “needs treatment on a mental level,” Reuters reported.
The two countries, nominally NATO allies, have disagreed on several issues over the past year including military conflicts in Syria, Azerbaijan and Libya.
Their latest beef began with the beheading of a French teacher on a Paris street. The teacher reportedly showed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in class, and President Macron vowed a crackdown on “Islamist separatism” afterward. French police said the suspect was fatally shot after refusing to drop a knife.
Erdogan, a devout Muslim, responded to France’s crackdown by saying, “What is the problem of this person called Macron with Muslims and Islam? Macron needs treatment on a mental level,” according to Reuters.
Macron was evidently offended by those comments, as he recalled France’s ambassador to Turkey later on Saturday, the Associated Press reported. His office said, “Excess and rudeness are not a method” and “We are not accepting insults.”
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