France is a major EU country and Turkey is on the edge of Europe, Africa and Asia acting like a bridge. For France, Maghreb is vital due to security issues. For Maghreb, France is important for trade and economic reasons. Macron cancelled his trip to Algeria by 9th of April due to pandemic however the badly relations between Algeria and France should not be ignored. Moreover, Paris has set up shops in all Moroccan ports. This gives impression to Algeria that Paris is getting ready to Morocco’s sovereignty over the territory.
For Algeria, it is a key issue due to security as well as economic. Most of the country’s energy production is in southern territories nearby Maghreb. Morocco is challenging Algeria in the Maghreb. Since 2011, France lost some kind of ground in Algeria due to economic crisis. While France weakened by time, France reduced the investment and aid. This has increased the anti-French sentiment growing. That is the same time when Turkey started to reclaim the influence since the fall of Ottoman Empire. While Turkey has increased its image as defender of Muslim world, it continued to support Islamic movements. Naturally, Turkey focused on trade and investment to develop its relations. Turkey is the third-importer of Algerian gas. Although it had worked in Algeria, Morocco has not shared the same sentiment.
Morocco increase the taxes in imported Turkish goods by up to 90% since the cheap but high quality Turkish goods flooding its markers. The move has been seen as support to Saudi-led boycott of Turkish products. But it also helped Morocco to have allies against Algeria concerning Maghreb.
The tension between France and Turkey have raised due to Turkish influence. There are many Muslims coming from this region to France as immigrates. There are around a million Algerian immigrant community as well as 350 000 Tunisian living in France. As long as the local cultural model challenges the government extending ties to France, Turkish-French relations will be effected since Turkey is influencing the politics in former French colonies. Moreover, it poses security threat to France. Maghreb might be distanced from both states but as long as conflict arise in the region, it would affect the European security and stability in the region.
