Charlie Hebdo’s Erdogan Caricature Fans Turkey-France Feud
Turkey assailed French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for mocking President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(Bloomberg) -- Turkey assailed French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for mocking President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with a front-page caricature as frictions with France intensified.
The Turkish leader’s spokesman accused French President Emmanuel Macron of encouraging such an insult with a hostile stance toward Islam. And the prosecutor’s office in the capital, Ankara, opened an investigation against the magazine following the publication of the contentious cartoon in its Wednesday edition.
“French President Macron’s anti-Muslim agenda is bearing fruit! Charlie Hebdo just published a series of so-called cartoons full of despicable images purportedly of our president,” Erdogan’s communications director, Fahrettin Altun, said on Twitter. “We condemn this most disgusting effort by this publication to spread its cultural racism and hatred.”
Erdogan on Wednesday said he didn’t look at the caricature to avoid lending legitimacy to “such immoral publications.” He didn’t address the lampoon of himself but called the cartoon, which included a reference to the Prophet Mohammed, “a grave insult to my prophet.”
“It is a matter of honor for us to stand resolutely against attacks on our prophet,” he said.
Turkey and France have been feuding for weeks over Macron’s characterization of Islam as a religion “in crisis” and a crackdown on Islamists after the beheading of a French teacher. Samuel Paty had showed cartoon images of the Prophet Mohammad published by Charlie Hebdo during a civics class.
Erdogan accused Macron of intolerance and told him he needs “mental checks” and has called for a boycott of French goods that apparently excludes European aviation consortium Airbus SE. He was feeding into a campaign that had already begun rippling on social media across the Muslim world, which has been unsettled by the French debate on Islam.
On Wednesday, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi joined the fray, urging respect for other people’s sensitivities while rejecting violence as a means to defend religion. El-Sisi has led a years-long offensive against Islamists and their supporters.
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