The duel of words and insults between the leaders of France and Turkey has acquired dimensions of commercial and religious conflict between the West and the Arab world. The Turkish lira is collapsing

With an unofficial boycott in the Muslim world against French products encouraged by Erdogan, tensions between Turkey and France, states with strong armies and NATO partners, are shifting to trade. Will the boycott be effective? Will things degenerate?

On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Turks in a televised speech “not to pay attention to the products labeled in France, not to buy them, as in France they are told not to buy Turkish products”. He did not clarify what the French boycott was, but within hours the Turkish Youth Foundation (TUGVA), an organization close to the Ankara government, launched a “boycott list” of French brands that Turks should avoid, writes Euronews . Many of the brands have operations in Turkey: Carrefour, Danone, Total, Renault and Peugeot. The campaign has reverberated on social media, where it found supporters, but also a barrage of jokes, in which it is noted that if the Turkish lira continues to collapse, the currency will reach the lowest level in history in recent days, it will not be. more Expensive French products need to be boycotted because few in Turkey will be able to afford them. And the Turkish lira continued its decline yesterday. In the rest of the Muslim world, the appeal was echoed in Kuwait, Qatar and many other states, but without acquiring official dimensions.

NATO partner countries Turkey and France are drifting more and more politically. The two military powers are on opposite positions in the war in Libya and especially in the Mediterranean gas conflict between Greece and Cyprus on the one hand and Turkey on the other. The Turkish government has sent prospecting ships, under military escort, to oil-rich areas that Greece and Cyprus say are part of their territory. Paris is one of the most active supporters of Greek and Cypriot interests, and at one point in this conflict a French military ship was targeted by a Turkish military ship. Erdogan has also verbally targeted French President Emmanuel Macron, most recently questioning the Frenchman’s mental health after talking about the problems created in France by radical Muslims who practice “Islamist separatism”. Macron reacted to the beheading of a teacher, Samuel Paty, who was taking caricature lessons with Prophet Muhammad.

For the rest, economically, relations between Turkey and France are very good, as is the case in most relations between EU states and countries considered dangerous competitors or whose leaders have authoritarian tendencies and are criticized in European capitals: Germany imports enormous Russian gas quantities and German companies have solid foundations in Russia, German automakers rely heavily on the Chinese market, L’Oreal says it has growing confidence in the Chinese market, and Airbus praises China as a vital strategic partner.

France has a significant commercial presence in Turkey. More than 1,300 companies with French capital operate on the Turkish market. One of the largest French companies produces there: it is the car manufacturer Renault. It owns the Oyak Renault plant in Turkey, the largest of the French group outside of Western Europe. The plant, with more than 6,000 employees, is one of the leading Turkish exporters, reaching number one in a few years. Other major car manufacturers also produce there: Ford, Fiat and Mercedes. Last year, Volkswagen decided to postpone plans to build a factory in Turkey due to a political scandal sparked by Ankara with a military offensive in northern Syria. Meanwhile, VW has given up on these plans completely, discussing the difficulties created by the pandemic. In the conflict between France and Turkey, Berlin relies on its EU partner. Another important French presence in Turkey is the Carrefour dealer. The Turkish branch has 643 stores and 10,500 employees. In Turkish official statistics, France is listed as the 10th largest source of imports and the 7th largest export market for Turkey.

In contrast, Turkey is not in the top ten export or import partners of France, but it is in the top 20. It should be noted that last year the pattern of trade between the two countries was that Turkey exported more than France to France. ‘import. The main products Turkey exports to France are automobiles and auto markets, with Renault cars likely playing a major role. French direct investments in Turkey are 35 times higher than the reverse.

The Turks boycott if they think badly of French products. But such a “punishment” has strong opponents. Ali Babacan, a former finance minister of the Erdogan government but who joined the opposition, describes the boycott as childish. “Of course, there are French brand products made in Turkey. What are we going to do, boycott them too? Our Turks work in their factories. Believe me, in a globalized world, these are childish things,” Babacan said. The first signs of the boycott were seen in other Muslim states. Supermarket employees in Qatar removed all products labeled “Made in France” from the shelves over the weekend. Some shops in Kuwait have been selling French products, such as Kiri cheese, Perrier mineral water, and Activia yogurt. The University of Qatar has postponed French Cultural Week, calling France’s insults against Islam and its symbols unacceptable. Erdogan’s exhortation was also followed in Somalia and thousands of people in Bangladesh protested against the French president’s comments. However, he found supporters in India.

But no Muslim country has declared an official boycott. More importantly, although France has withdrawn its ambassador from Turkey, French Commerce Minister Franck Riester has assured that his country does not intend to boycott Turkish products. “We don’t have a countermeasure on the agenda,” he said.

Equally important to understanding the crisis between Paris and Ankara is that France has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe. Some accuse the authorities of using traditional French secularism to target the Muslim population. Others believe Macron is contradicting Erdogan to attract votes from right-wing and right-wing extremists. About 650,000 Turkish citizens also live in France. About 300,000 of them have French citizenship. Erdogan, who poses as a defender of Islam, like the Hungarian Orban says he is a defender of Christian values ​​in the face of the Muslim wave, could use them as an electoral tool for him or against Macron. The strongest European leaders support France.