'French firm Lafarge exposed as 1 of most important institutions supporting terrorism'

By Diyar Guldogan

ANKARA (AA) - French cement giant Lafarge is now exposed as one of the most important institutions supporting terrorism, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.

"When I said how the French cement giant, called Lafarge, supported and helped terrorist organizations in northern Syria, the French did not understand this.

"I told this to (French President Emmanuel) Macron. Now in the French parliament, they asked Macron for Lafarge's account," Erdogan told the 12th Conference of Information Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul.

"At the moment, Lafarge has become one of the most important issues on the agenda of France. Lafarge is now fully exposed as one of the most important institutions supporting terrorism," Erdogan added.

Lafarge was slapped Tuesday with a heavy fine of $778 million by a US court for supporting several terror groups in Syria in 2013-2014, including Daesh/ISIS.

Erdogan said that although Türkiye is the "only country" fighting Daesh/ISIS terror group in field, it is subjected to "immoral accusations."

"Today, it is revealed one by one with evidence and court decisions that those who slandered us yesterday did business with Deash, traded, and transferred millions of euros to terrorists in the same period," he added.