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This article skilfully combines factual errors, dubious claims & a lazy narrative about #France trying to “dismantle #NATO”. And all this work hardly hides the usual Turkish talking points about Greek “maximalist claims”. A thread: https://twitter.com/doranimated/status/1333610280333570048
1/ Separatism: 1st mistake, the Mureaux speech presenting the policy vs Islamism occurred on Oct. 2nd, S. Paty was killed on Oct. 16th. This chronology shows that this speech comes after years of consultations with all religious organizations and not as a response to the murder.
If you are seriously interested in understanding the #Islamism debate in #France. @john_lichfield & @LiamSD12 have written several good articles. https://twitter.com/diplocharlie/status/1332010998564352000
2/ Erdogan/Macron: Here also a reversal of chronology to support a dubious claim. Turkey started a PR campaign to make it about Macron personally, as a way to avoid answering legitimate strategic questions regarding #Syria, #migration, #Libya, #EastMed.
I had listed some examples of the AKP campaign against Macron. https://twitter.com/diplocharlie/status/1304516943748173832?s=20
It is interesting that the article doesn’t question any of the Turkish moves that may have caused tensions with Europe... https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/09/turkey-libya-syria-six-problems-aggressive-foreign-policy.html
3/ Turkey & French Islam: the new French policy has to do with #Turkey because Turkey is the country sending the biggest numbers of foreign imams to France (151 out of the 300 foreign imams in France).
4/ French-German rivalry: gross exaggeration, Macron has made cooperation with Berlin one of his priorities from day 1. Disagreements are discussed and addressed, with a number of bilateral and EU progress. https://www.euractiv.com/section/future-eu/news/merkel-macron-to-deepen-franco-german-cooperation-strengthen-eu/
And about tactical differences between Germany and France, here is a better paper. https://internationalepolitik.de/en/pariscope-hegelian-diplomacy-eastern-mediterranean
The Med coalition the article mentions is therefore not meant to counterbalance Germany, it is meant to bring Turkey to realise Southern Europe is concerned, and to stop unilateral moves and come back to the negotiation table.
The Med Coalition has clearly emphasised the need for Greece and Turkey to settle things through dialog. Presenting this as a French crusade is, again, very debatable. https://twitter.com/diplocharlie/status/1304516977994670082
And it seems the German position on Turkey *is* changing, like the US one, too bad the article doesn’t mention the many reasons behind this, including Ankara’s refusal to seize the opportunity of the German mediation on #EastMed. https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/us-germany-warn-turkey-not-to-squander-trust-in-mediterranean/ https://twitter.com/diplocharlie/status/1304516941445509122?s=20
Another slightly inaccurate part: Germany is actually considering sanctions. For instance 
https://www.politico.eu/article/german-foreign-minister-issues-sanctions-warning-to-turkey/
https://www.politico.eu/article/german-foreign-minister-issues-sanctions-warning-to-turkey/
6/ France/US: Remember the #braindead comment one year ago? It was exactly about a French complaint abt a lack of US leadership, when Trump decided to let Erdogan intervene in NE #Syria. It’s funny to blame the French when they expect US leadership.
7/ France/Russia/Iran: And guess who benefited from the Turkish intervention in #Syria in 2019? Russia. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/world/middleeast/kurds-syria-turkey.html
While France has offered a renewed dialog to Russia, it seems the Turkish-Russian tandem is much more concrete: #Syria #Libya #S400 #Karabakh. But the article claims this is containment 
https://warontherocks.com/2019/10/turkey-and-russia-a-remarkable-rapprochement/
https://warontherocks.com/2019/10/turkey-and-russia-a-remarkable-rapprochement/
Which leads us to the most absurd part of the paper, the one arguing that France is teaming up with Russia & Iran to undermine the US. The Hezbollah example is almost ironic given Macron’s harsh speech against Hezbollah in October.
Another strange example: I actually cannot find where this idea of a current economic compensation for Germany in Iran comes from. There is no data or facts to support this assertion.
Here is another mistake : the industrial lead, value added & benefits of these projects (rank & aircraft) is equally shared between France and Germany.
8/ France/NATO: The notion that Macron wants to dismantle NATO is ludicrous & contradictory to multiple statements.
Here are some examples. Being demanding with the alliance does not mean dismantling it. On the contrary, it aims at reinforcing it. https://twitter.com/OlivierR_Bel/status/1333821199508516875?s=20
Interestingly, voilà what FR & GER said today: "we fully support the recommendations to (...) reinvigorate our transat. bond, including through the recognition that stronger Euro defence efforts also strengthen the Alliance & the transat. partnership." https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/newsroom/news/-/2422368
9/ #Turkey/Russia: But since we are talking about teaming up with Iran & #Russia, what about the Astana format between Moscow, Tehran and...Ankara? This framework has effectively excluded the US from the political process on #Syria. https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/the-astana-process-a-flexible-but-fragile-showcase-for-russia
So almost each paragraph of this paper can be contested & the attempt to depict concerns about Turkey as a French obsession begins to be an old trick but will not fool anybody, as @StevenErlanger has reported. https://twitter.com/nytimesworld/status/1290527918096027648?s=20
For those interested, here are further elements on French foreign policy drivers in the Middle East and North Africa, published with @CHACR_Camberley [End]. https://chacr.org.uk/2020/11/20/a-matter-of-history-diasporas-diplomacy-and-security-french-foreign-policy-drivers-in-mena/
