TURKEY VOWS LEGAL ACTION OVER CHARLIE HEBDO CARTOON OF ITS PRESIDENT
Turkish officials on Wednesday railed against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo over its cover-page cartoon mocking Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and accused it of sowing “the seeds of hatred and animosity”.
The cartoon could further heighten tensions between Turkey and France, which erupted over French President Emmanuel Macron’s firm stance against Islamic radicalism following the beheading of a teacher who showed his pupils the caricatures of Prophet Muhammad during a class on free speech.
Erdogan on Wednesday blasted the “scoundrels” at the Charlie Hebdo for mocking him with the front-page cartoon.
“I am sad and frustrated not because of this disgusting attack on me personally but because of the impertinence taking aim at our prophet we love more than ourselves,” he told his party’s lawmakers in the parliament.
The Prophet cartoons upset many in the Muslim world. But it was Erdogan who led the charge against France and questioned Macron’s mental state. France then recalled its ambassador to Turkey for consultations, a first in French-Turkish diplomatic relations.
The Ankara prosecutor’s office launched an “official investigation” into the publication, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported
In Egypt, President AbdelFattah al-Sisi said on Wednesday that freedom of expression should stop at offending more than 1.5 billion people, referring to the caricatures of the prophet, which Muslims consider blasphemous. He said he rejected any form of violence or terrorism from anyone in the name of defending religion, religious symbols or icons.