Brussels, 24.10.2020 Paris said it was recalling its envoy to Ankara H.E.Hervé MAGRO for consultations after comments by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggesting French counterpart Emmanuel Macron needed a “mental health” treatment that quai d’Orsay condemned as unacceptable.

“What can one say about a head of state who treats millions of members from different faith groups this way: first of all, have mental checks,” Erdogan said in a televised address in the central Anatolian city of Kayseri.

“Macron’s statement that ‘Islam is in a crisis’ is an open provocation beyond disrespect,” Erdogan underlined.

President Macron described Islam as a religion “in crisis” worldwide and said the government would present a new law in December to strengthen one existing since 1905 that officially separated church and state in France. Macron also announced stricter oversight of schooling and better control over foreign funding of mosques.