Published 14:39 IST, October 31st 2020
Turkey's plan to boycott French goods backfires after Saudi Arabia bans Turkish products
French President's defence of Prophet Mohammad's controversial caricatures has sparked widespread anger against many countries in the Islamic world.
- World News
- 2 min read
In an attempt to launch another personal attack over French President Emmanuel Macron, Turkey's plan to boycott all French-labelled products backfired when another Islamic country Saudi Arabia started boycotting Turkish-labelled products instead. Turkey's call for banning French goods came after Emmanuel Macron took a tough stand against extremist terrorism and also defended Prophet Mohammad's controversial caricatures. Apart from Turkey, Pakistan along with other Muslim majority countries are carrying our anti-France campaigns.
Saudi Arabia boycotts Turkish products
While Recep Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was urging people to not buy French products goods, Saudi Arabia started to boycott all the Turkish products instead. In this informal boycott of Turkish goods, signboards urging people to not Turkish products were spotted in some of the stores in Riyadh. As per the local media reports, many supermarket chains in Saudi have now replaced all the Turkish products with products from Greece.
In an attempt to express solidarity with Greece over Turkish aggression, many stores in Saudi have also hung Greece flags outside their stores. The local media also reported that one of the department stores in Riyadh has removed all 'Made in Turkey' products and has replaced the Turkish cheese with the Eygptian cheese. Apart from Saudi, India has also strongly condemned the personal attacks against the French President due to his strong stance on extremist terrorism.
Turkey and Saudi Arabia at loggerheads
Despite the fact that Turkey and Saudi Arabia are major economic partners, both the nations since the 19th-century share tense and complicated political relations. One of the major reasons for the conflicts is the difference in the practice of Islam between the two countries. Apart from this, Turkey and Saudi are at loggerheads due to other issues including Libya and Syria and the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
Updated 14:39 IST, October 31st 2020