Erdogan lashes out again at French president

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday challenged the United States to impose sanctions against his country while also launching a new attack on French President Emmanuel Macron. Speaking a day after he suggested Macron needed mental health treatment because of his attitude to Islam and Muslims, which prompted France to recall its ambassador to Ankara, Erdogan took aim at foreign critics.

"Whatever your sanctions are, don't be late," Erdogan said, referring to warnings from the U.S. not to get involved directly in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, where Ankara supports Azerbaijan against ethnic Armenian forces.

Erdogan returned to his attack on Macron, who has been a vocal critic of Turkish foreign policy in recent months. "The person in charge of France has lost his way," Erdogan said, describing the French leader as "a case". During a similar event on Saturday, Erdogan criticized Macron's approach to Islam.

This month, the French president targeted what he called "Islamist separatism" in France's Muslim communities. In a statement released after Erdogan's remarks on Saturday, the French president's office pointed out that Erdogan did not offer condolences following the beheading near Paris last week of a teacher who had shown his class some caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

After Erdogan's comments on Macron, a demonstration was staged on Sunday at Istanbul's iconic Beyazit mosque by fundamentalist Islamist activists. Demonstrators held up anti-Macron signs and chanted prayers in support of Erdogan.