Macron, like a Charlie Hebdo cartoon

Macron is trying to revive France's imperialist, colonial past. He longs for the dirty, merciless, crime-against-humanity practices of colonialism, its massacres, its tortures, its practices of seizing the assets of other countries unjustly, cunningly, insidiously and cruelly. With his whole being he is trying to revive this past right now.

In fact France never fully put up, could not put up, a barrier between itself and this dirty past. In past years, the colonial interest of its other leaders or governments, directed toward Africa and toward the Middle East, always remained. Sometimes hidden, sometimes open, but France's foot was never fully cut off from these places. France, which today ranks first among the developed countries, France, which dazzles with its industry and its development, owes this development and this prosperity to the sufferings it inflicted on Muslim or African peoples. In this state, the Western civilization, prosperity and development, human rights and democracy attributed to France are precisely a place where one can see hypocrisy and fraud.

Those who want to see the background of this civilization and modernism in France's showcase should visit the museum beneath the Martyrs' Memorial in Algeria. When they see there the oppression meted out to the Algerian people, who are devoted to freedom, independence and their honor, they will do nothing but feel shame at the hypocrisy and fraud of every word they have heard in the name of civilization, in the name of modernity, and above all in the name of human rights and democracy originating in France.

It is clear that today, as Macron makes his appearance in Lebanon, this colonial zeal reflected in his speech, his stance and his walk promises people nothing good. Macron, who covets this past of his, has nothing to promise Lebanon, and there is much that he intends to take.

When he made his appearance in Libya, Macron's calculation and practice were not at all slow to recall the past. The regions rescued from the hands of Haftar, whom he supports, are full of mass graves of the massacres committed there. A perfect French colonial practice. History repeats itself one way or another, and everyone displays the virtues in their history again today exactly as they were.

I wonder why those who attribute to Turkey a zeal to revive the Ottomans because it defends its own trampled rights do not say a word to France? Moreover, what practice is there in the Ottoman past in these regions that one should be ashamed of, that should be hidden away? Today in the great majority of the peoples of the Middle East there is a longing for the Ottomans, even more than in Turkey. Should we not dwell on the reason?

So, with the things that bring the Ottomans to mind, something is remembered of the colonialism of France and of Europe, and in this memory the Ottomans appear as a perfectly clean experience.

Besides, Turkey has no such zeal; today it perhaps does nothing other than act in accordance with its own history, personality and identity. It has no eye on anyone's land. Yes, it wants to be strong, but it has no pursuit of using this strength against anyone. It has no concern other than increasing its production and securing prosperity, honor and freedom for its own people. Within this framework it does not harm any country it establishes relations with, does not threaten its stability, and does not covet the cunning of gaining without giving. That is why Turkey becomes a country that all the peoples in this geography seek and demand.

If this looks like the Ottomans to some, it means they have a problem. Those who have an issue with the Ottomans, because they betrayed the Ottomans, that is, in fact now their own peoples, and because they know that this betrayal will one day eventually be called to account, express their feelings in a rush and a panic. Even if Turkey does not in any way say Ottoman, they see this in Turkey's rise. There is nothing to be done from Turkey's side. Everyone, in the end, is alone with the psychology formed by what they experienced in their own past.

To return to Macron. Some time ago, in response to the criticisms directed at Charlie Hebdo, which republished the vulgar caricatures about our Prophet, he gave his support by using the words "The President cannot comment on the editorial choices of journalists." If this statement were really true, perhaps we would have nothing to say.

But we know that journalists in France are not at all that free in editorial choices. For example, no one can even conduct an investigation that puts the number of Jews who died in the genocide of the Second World War one below 6 million. One cannot move a pen by a single line on this subject. This subject is not within the scope of freedom of expression. We remember as clear as day what happened to Roger Garaudy on this matter.

But a more current incident, his reprimanding in front of everyone, in the name of French interests, of Le Figaro reporter Georges Malbrunot, who reported on Macron's meeting with Hezbollah officials, is exactly like a caricature dialogue. Even this dialogue shows how false the freedom Macron grants to Cahrlie Hebdo is, and that in fact it is his own preferences.

In return for the disrespectful attitudes of Macron, who longs for France's colonial past, toward Islam and Muslims, what kind of dirty bargaining and what haste to have agreements exposed does his meeting with Hezbollah officials reflect?

This is of course worth dwelling on. But what is certain in this picture is that Macron stands like a Charlie Hebdo caricature. Distorted, bad, but not at all funny attempts to represent a zeal.