Don’t mess with the Turkish people. Don’t mess with Turkey

“Don’t mess with the Turkish people. Don’t mess with Turkey,” he said. The verbal broadside comes after the French president leveled criticism at Ankara earlier in the week, saying that Turkey was “no longer a partner” in the Mediterranean region. France and Turkey are at loggerheads over a range of issues, including a tense dispute over territorial waters between Ankara and Athens in the Eastern Mediterranean and the conflict in Libya. France has given military and diplomatic support to Greece in its confrontation with Turkey. Complicating matters, France, Greece and Turkey are all NATO members.