Turkey’s president rips Charlie Hebdo ‘scoundrels’ for ‘disgusting’ cartoon
Controversial French magazine Charlie Hebdo further enflamed Turkey on Wednesday with a cover mocking President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — which the leader called “disgusting” work by “scoundrels.”
The satirical magazine, which has been at the heart of a series of terror attacks over its cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, depicted Erdogan in his underwear holding a drink and lifting the skirt of a woman wearing an Islamic dress to ogle her bare bottom.
It brought immediate condemnation — and further heightened global outrage against the magazine as well as French President Emmanuel Macron’s refusal to renounce it.
Erdogan called the cover “disgusting” — while admitting he had not seen the Hebdo drawing because he did not want to “give credit to such immoral publications,” according to Agence France-Presse.
“I don’t need to say anything to those scoundrels who insult my beloved Prophet on such a scale,” Erdogan said in a speech to his party’s lawmakers, according to the wire service.
“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.”
His vice president, Fuat Oktay, condemned the “incorrigible French rag’s immoral publication” in a tweet. “I call on the moral and conscientious international community to speak out against this disgrace,” he said.
Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons first sparked bloodshed in 2015 when terrorists killed 12 at the magazine’s office over its cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, the first in a series of extremist attacks on France.
This month, 47-year-old schoolteacher Samuel Paty was beheaded in Paris as revenge for showing pupils some of the magazine’s cartoons as part of a free speech class.
Macron stood up for the magazine’s rights to share the images, instead attacking Islamic extremism.
Even before Wednesday’s cover, Erdogan had questioned Macron’s sanity and called for a boycott of French products, leading to Wednesday’s cover cartoon.
French government spokesman Gabriel Attal said the country would not back down over “intimidation.”
“France will never renounce its principles and values, and notably the freedom of expression and freedom of publication” Attal said.
“It was hateful comments toward journalists, toward a newsroom, that led to the bloodshed we have seen in recent years in our country,” he said, referring to the 2015 Charlie Hebdo office slaughter.
With Post wires