The French President told Recep Tayyip Erdogan today that democratic countries must respect the rule of law in their ongoing fight against terrorism as Mr Macron raised concerns about the fate of students, teachers and journalists detained by Ankara.
Emmanuel Macron also said after his talks with the Turkish president at the Elysee presidential palace that they had disagreed about human rights.
He told a joint a news conference: “Our democracies must be strong standing up to terrorism. But at the same time our democracies must completely protect the rule of law.”
Mr Macron said that recent developments in Turkey did not allow for progress in Ankara’s decades-long push to join the European Union.
Discussions should change focus, he said, mentioning the possibility of a “partnership” that would fall short of full membership.
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The European Union has in the past expressed concern over Turkey’s crackdown on those suspected of backing the failed coup in 2016 that has seen some 50,00 people arrested pending trial and 150,000, including teachers, journalists and judges, sacked or suspended from their jobs.
Mr Macron said he had raised a number of cases with Mr Erdogan of specific journalists and members of Galatasaray University who had been detained, but did not give details.
In response, Mr Erdogan defended the crackdown, saying that some journalists encouraged terrorism with their writing, comparing them to gardeners nurturing plants.
He said: “These gardeners are those people viewed as thinkers. They water … from their newspaper columns.
“And one day, you find, these people show up as a terrorist in front of you.”
Paris has previously been wary of admitting Turkey, with a population of around 80 million people, into the EU.
Mr Erdogan was visibly irritated when a French journalist suggested that Turkish intelligence had sent arms to Syria.
Mr Erdogan said the operation had been conducted by supporters of Fethullah Gulen, the US-based Muslim cleric blamed by Turkish authorities for orchestrating the failed coup, and accused the French journalist of speaking like one of them.
Several deals were signed during Mr Erdogan’s visit, including a tentative accord for Turkish Airlines to buy 25 A350-900 aircraft.
France and Turkey, along with Italy, also took a step towards closer defence co-operation with a contract for a study into the development and production of a long-range air and missile defence system.
The three-country missile programme is scheduled to be ready by the middle of the next decade and aims to defend against threats from stealth aircraft, drones and missiles.