Erdogan condemns Hebdo cover cartoon
TURKISH officials have railed against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo over a cover page cartoon mocking Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accusing it of sowing “the seeds of hatred and animosity”.
The cartoon could heighten tensions between Turkey and France which erupted over French President Emmanuel Macron’s firm stance against Islamism following the beheading of a teacher who showed his class caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad for a free speech class.
The Prophet cartoons upset many in the Muslim world, but it was Mr Erdogan who led the charge against France and questioned Mr Macron’s mental state. France then recalled its ambassador to Turkey for consultations, a first in FrenchTurkish diplomatic relations.
“We strongly condemn the publication concerning our president of the French magazine, which has no respect to faith, the sacred and values,” Mr Erdogan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, wrote on Twitter.
Mr Kalin said: “The aim of these publications, that are devoid of morality and decency, is to sow seeds of hatred and animosity. To turn freedom of expression into hostility towards religion and belief can only be the product of a sick mentality.”
The Ankara chief prosecutor’s office launched an investigation into Charlie Hebdo managers over the cartoon, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Insulting the president is a crime in Turkey, punishable by up to four years in prison.
The cartoon depicted Mr Erdogan in his underwear holding a drink and lifting the skirt of a woman wearing an Islamic dress.
Mr Erdogan himself said he had not looked at the drawing and had nothing to say about the “dishonourable” publication.
“My sadness and anger does not stem from the disgusting attack on my person but from the fact that the same (publication) is the source of the impertinent attack to my dear Prophet,” Mr Erdogan told his ruling party’s legislators in parliament.
He went on to criticise France and other European nations’ colonial past saying: “You are murderers!”
“I condemn this incorrigible French rag’s immoral publication concerning our president,” Turkish vice president Fuat Oktay wrote on Twitter. “I call on the moral and conscientious international community to speak out against this disgrace.”
Mr Macron’s stance sparked antiFrance protests in Turkey and other Muslim countries, as well as calls for the boycott of French goods.
French government spokesman Gabriel Attal said the country would not back down in the face of what he called “efforts of destabilisation, of intimidation”.
“Despite this intimidation, France will never renounce its principles and values,” he added.