Following President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's recent visit to France, significant progress was achieved for the future of relations with France as well as Turkish-EU ties. A serious barrier was lifted at least to overcome Brussels's ongoing hypocrisy, which has blocked its whole agenda with Ankara.

However, before and after the visit, we have observed a considerable effort from certain parts of the French media to destroy the constructiveness of the visit.

The French center-right, conservative weekly, Le Point, was the champion of those efforts, as it even mentioned an embargo for Turkey.

In an editorial written with great hostility against the Turkish people and their president in its edition on Jan. 4, Le Point ran the headline "Turkey, Iran and human rights." Using aggressive insults against Erdoğan, Le Point used rhetoric far from respectful criticism and journalistic discussions. It attempted to open the question to public discussion whether an embargo would have been a proper instrument to destabilize the "theocratic dictatorial regime" in Turkey. Just a day before a strategic visit during which a significant defense industry deal and billions of dollars of agreements were to be signed, Le Point was trying to lay mines along the path for cooperation. Was it an attack against Turkey and its president or directly against the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, who planned to follow a different foreign policy vision than his predecessors? Or was it against both of them?

Of course, Le Point reached a conclusion that an embargo would not have been the right way to defeat the "enemy," but improving exchanges and ties with the Turkish people, "who merited better," according to the weekly, to destabilize the "theocratic dictatorial regime." But, at the end of the day, it found a place for the term embargo, even though it used it negatively.

If a specific agenda would not have drawn prejudice from the Western press against Turkey, they should focus on lifting the blockade in their minds against Turkey, which is pathology more than political position. That pathology was formed by a specific perception operation prepared by certain circles that aimed to tire Turkey with external and internal operations.

Defeating the blockade against Turkey in their minds should be the first step if they do not want to be used as an instrument.

In the final analysis, the recent presidential visit to Paris resulted in noteworthy, positive steps in many fields from the defense industry to infrastructure and energy as well as international issues despite deeply planned efforts to hinder them.