Erdogan calls Macron 'brain dead' ahead of 70th anniversary NATO summit

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan called French president Emmanuel Macron "brain dead" days before both leaders are set to attend a NATO summit in London. 

The summit will mark the 70th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s existence, but comes at a time of strained relations between NATO alliance countries.

The French government summoned the Turkish ambassador to Paris over the insulting public comments. 

In the middle of a televised speech in Ankara on Friday, Erdogan directly addressed Macron, advising the French president to “check whether [he] is brain-dead.”

This was in reference to critical comments Macron had made about the NATO alliance in an October 21 interview with the Economist.

Macron told the Economist that NATO, which includes both France and Turkey, was suffering from “brain death,” citing lack of coordination and unity among members, especially Turkey, the US and Germany.  

“You have no coordination whatsoever of strategic decision-making between the United States and its NATO allies. None. You have an uncoordinated aggressive action by another NATO ally, Turkey, in an area where our interests are at stake,” he added. 

Macron was referring to the US withdrawal from northeast Syria, which he said harmed their Kurdish allies in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who have been the main troops on the front lines in the fight against Islamic State (ISIS). 

The withdrawal paved the way for the Turkish military’s Operation Peace Spring, an incursion across the Syrian border against the SDF which began on October 9. Macron was one of several world leaders who slammed the Turkish operation. 

 "These statements are suitable only to people like you who are in a state of brain-death," responded Erdogan during his remarks in Istanbul, according to Turkish state-owned media company TRT World.

Erdogan said that he will say the same thing to Macron at the summit in Britain on December 4. 

"This is not a statement, these are insults," a French official said to AFP. "The [Turkish] ambassador will be summoned to the ministry to explain things."

Macron’s criticism of the US withdrawal in Syria and subsequent Turkish invasion caused the Turkish president to claim that his French counterpart "doesn't know what fighting against terror is.” 

Erdogan was referring to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), who comprise the backbone of the SDF but are considered terrorists by Turkey due to their alleged links to armed Kurdish separatists in Turkey.  

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu accused Macron on Thursday of supporting terrorism, also referring to the French president’s friendly relations with the SDF. 

"He is already the sponsor of the terrorist organisation and constantly hosts them at the Elysee. If he says his ally is the terrorist organisation ... Macron's words, in my eyes, have no meaning," Cavusoglu said.

Kurdish officials from the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES) have been received in Paris more than once by Macron, who has expressed his support for them. 

Cavusoglu also described the French president as a “crowing cockerel” nine days before the Turkish operation in northern Syria after Macron blamed Ankara for human rights violations at home. 

“I liken him to a cockerel crowing while his feet are buried in mud,” he said, adding that Macron has “exceeded his boundaries by defaming Turkey on freedom of expression.”