Turkey hits out at Mohammed ‘insult’
ANKARA: Turkey will not allow Mohammed to be insulted, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said yesterday, describing the publication of cartoons of the prophet as an open provocation.
“Freedom of the press does not mean freedom to insult,” Mr Davutoglu told reporters in Ankara a day after leading Turkish daily Cumhuriyet and Turkish internet sites published cartoons featuring the prophet from the special Charlie Hebdo issue.
The newspaper produced a special four-page pull-out of cartoons and articles drawn from the French satirical magazine on Wednesday in solidarity with the 12 people gunned down in an attack on its offices in Paris.
“We do not allow any insult to the prophet in this country,” Mr Davutoglu said. “As the government, we cannot put side by side the freedom of press and the lowness to insult.”
Mr Davutoglu said people were sensitive about their religion in predominantly Muslim Turkey and could not be expected to show patience towards insults to the Muslim prophet.
“If some print cartoons that insult the prophet — and this is the situation and there is a sensitivity in Turkey — it is a provocation ... it is an open provocation,” said Mr Davutoglu.
“We are determined to protect the honour of the prophet the same way as we are determined in our stance against terrorism in Paris,” he said.
A Turkish court on Wednesday ordered a block on access to websites featuring the latest cover of Charlie Hebdo, after a petition from a single lawyer claiming that the printing of the cartoon had the potential to endanger public order.
The court in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir, responding to a petition brought by a single lawyer, ordered the block on websites displaying the cover which shows the Muslim Prophet Mohammed, the state Anatolia news agency reported.
On Wednesday, Turkish daily Cumhuriyet, which strongly opposes President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamic-leaning rule, was the sole publication in a majority Muslim country to reproduce in print cartoons and articles from the special Charlie Hebdo issue.
But it stopped short of publishing the controversial cover in the four-page pullout issue, with the image appearing in smaller form to illustrate two columns by commentators.
Mr Davutoglu also said yesterday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had committed crimes against humanity comparable to those behind the Paris attacks.
“Netanyahu has committed crimes against humanity the same like those terrorists who carried out the Paris massacre,” he said, pointing to the deadly 2010 Israeli assault on a Turkish aid vessel and last year’s onslaught on Gaza.