Turkey joins chorus of condemnation of Nice murders
After three people were killed by a suspected Islamist extremist in France’s coastal city of Nice, Turkey's president took a break from his row with Paris to condemn the violence.
Turkey swiftly joined the wave of condemnations over the brutal murders of three people by a suspected Islamist extremist in France’s coastal city of Nice today, in the midst of an escalating row between Ankara and Paris over a broad range of issues spanning the Eastern Mediterranean and the role of Islam.
The assailant is said to have charged at the victims with a knife in the Notre-Dame Basilica in the heart of city on the French Riviera, shouting "Allahu Akhbar." Two of the victims were female, one a 70-year old who was “virtually beheaded” as she was praying, the BBC reported. The suspect, who has not yet been identified, was shot and detained soon after.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron, who traveled to the scene of the carnage in Nice, called it an “Islamist terrorist attack.”
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement, “It is clear that those who commit such a violent act in a holy place have no respect for any humanitarian, religious or moral values.”
