Turkey Urges France to Recognize Consequences of Colonial Past
15:10 GMT 27.08.2022 (Updated: 11:36 GMT 23.11.2022)
© AP Photo / Christophe Ena
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Turkish Foreign Ministry is calling on France to acknowledge the consequence of its colonial past without blaming other nations, ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic said on Saturday.
According to Turkish media, during his recent visit to Algeria, French President Emmanuel Macron claimed the existence of networks in Turkey, Russia and China that demonstrate neocolonialist and imperialist aspirations and act against France in Africa.
"We hope that France will reach as soon as possible the maturity to face its colonial past without blaming other countries, including Turkey," Bilgic said in a statement.
The ministry stressed that Macron's remarks against Turkey were unacceptable and drew attention to the developing beneficial relations between Algeria and Turkey.
"If France supposes that there are reactions against it in the African continent, it should search for the source of these reactions in its colonial past and its efforts to still pursue this with different methods and it must try to repair it," the document read, adding that "to claim that these reactions are caused by the activities of third countries, instead of confronting and solving the problems related to their own past, is not only to deny a sociological phenomenon and history, but also reflects the distorted mentality of some politicians."
France retained its colonies in Africa roughly until the 1960s, exercising its dominance over North, Western and Equatorial Africa.
Shortly after the formation of the Fifth French Republic in 1958, such countries as Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Congo, Chad and the Central African Republic gained independence. Despite this fact, Paris failed to completely abandon the region, continuing to intervene in internal affairs of the region, including by military means, prompting states like Mali to demand its complete withdrawal and non-interference.
