ANKARA, Nov 7: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan linked the riots in France to a ban on Muslim headscarves in the country’s schools, drawing opposition charges that he was encouraging protests against a similar ban in Turkey.

In an interview with the daily Milliyet, Mr Erdogan said ‘the process begun in France in the schools’ was one explanation for the violence that saw thousands of vehicles destroyed, schools vandalized and police attacked in the poor suburbs of French cities.

Mr Erdogan said the law against headscarves in French schools contributed to Muslim migrants’ sense of exclusion and ‘stirred up’ the violence.

“We have always defended the alliance of civilizations (between Islam and the West) and tried to demonstrate the importance of Turkey’s accession to the European Union in this respect,” Mr Erdogan said. “But some did not want to understand — above all the French.”

The comments triggered accusations from the opposition that Mr Erdogan was exploiting tensions in France for his own political agenda.—AFP