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Turkey has threatened to take “legal and diplomatic” action against the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo after it published a cartoon of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on its latest front page.
The drawing described as “disgusting” by the Turkish leader and Ankara’s announcement that prosecutors have launched an official investigation into the publication have worsened already heightened tensions between the two countries.
Erdogan, who has already suggested that French President Emmanuel Macron needed “mind controls”, accused Western countries of mocking Islam by trying to “relaunch the Crusades.”
He told the Turkish parliament that he had not seen the latest cartoon and would not look at it. He is depicted in underwear lifting a woman’s hijab to reveal her buttocks.
“I consider it wrong to look at these immoral posts … scoundrels insulting our beloved Prophet,” Erdogan told MPs. “I believe that the enemies of Turkey and Islam are going to drown in a swamp of hatred and animosity in the name of freedom. It is a sign that Europe has returned to the dark ages. “
It has been announced that the Ankara prosecution has opened an investigation into the directors of Charlie Hebdo, while France will seek EU sanctions against Turkey.
Clément Beaune, France’s Europe minister, told the French Senat: “We will be pushing for European measures to be taken as a strong reaction, including the possible use of sanctions.” He added that every day Erdogan was pushing the limits of what was “acceptable” further and accused Turkey of “scattered provocations.
As protests continued over Macron’s alleged Islamophobia, the Elysee Palace issued a stern response accusing the leaders leading the anti-French campaign of “political manipulation” and “propaganda.”
Even before the latest Charlie Hebdo cartoon, French diplomats have been trying to quell protests across the Islamic world where portraits of the French president have been burned along with calls to boycott French goods.
Presidential advisers said Macron’s words were being deliberately “warped” by certain leaders for internal political reasons.
“Each one has its problems and a solid position with respect to France. Their answer is political manipulation, ”said one official, adding that there was an additional problem in understanding the concept of French laicité or secularism.
“The president has explained what it means but there has been a distortion of his statements. He did not say that France would continue to caricature the Prophet, he said that it was part of the exercise of freedom of expression in France to allow the media to do so, ”the official said.
“But there is a lot of misinformation and propaganda… it is not the French government that is publishing the cartoons and it is absolutely false to make people believe that the French government is promoting the cartoons.
“We defend freedom of the press. It is not the president who sets the limits of what the press can do. There is no crime of blasphemy in France and caricature is a very old tradition ”.
The backlash began after police raids on Islamic organizations and individuals following the death of Samuel Paty, the 47-year-old teacher who was beheaded after showing students cartoons, including one of the Prophet Muhammad, published by Charlie Hebdo, as part of a discussion on freedom of expression. Standing in front of Paty’s school on the night of the murder, Macron said France is facing an “existential” fight against terrorism. In his speech at a national ceremony honoring the assassinated teacher last week, Macron evoked “political and radical Islamism, which leads to terrorism,” adding: “We will not give up cartoons, drawings, even if others are backing down.”
However, its roots can be traced back to an earlier speech by Macron on October 2 in which a new law was outlined to promote secularism in France and combat religious “separatism” in which he addressed Islam and Islamist extremism. The law, which will be presented to ministers in December, was drawn up in consultation with France’s main Muslim organization, the Conseil Français du Culte Musulman (CFCM).
The president unleashed anger when he declared that Islam is “a religion that is going through a crisis today throughout the world”; the influential Sunni Al-Azhar University in Cairo described his suggestion as “racist and likely to inflame the feelings of two billion Muslims around the world.”
Elysee officials insist the president’s comments were not directed at Muslims. “It is not about Muslims in France, it is about violent extremists in France; people who fall into extremism, violence, fundamentalism and who do a disservice to Muslims. They are enemies of Islam. Let’s be clear, to us, that there is no confusion between Muslims and extremists who carry out acts of terror, even though some people try to create this confusion, ”said the Elysee source.
“The fight is against these extremists and in this we have the support of the Muslims in France who are our allies.”
Support for France has been echoed in 24 of the 26 states of the European Union.
In Mogadishu, the Somali capital, protesters shouted: “France down, insulted our Prophet,” while in Cairo, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said freedom of expression should stop if it offended more than 1,500 millions of people.
The Grand Imam of al-Azhar University in Egypt, one of the most eminent venues for Sunni Muslim learning in the world, urged the international community to criminalize “anti-Muslim” actions. Iranian protesters gathered in front of the French embassy in Tehran, state media reported. Some held posters with red crosses taped to pictures of French products. In Dhaka, hundreds of Bangladeshi Muslims took to the streets of the capital for the third day in a row, chanting slogans such as “Boycott French products” and burning effigies of Macron, whom they described as an enemy of Islam.
The Elysee said it regretted that in all the sound and fury of international anti-France and anti-Macron protests, Paty’s brutal murder was being overshadowed.
“From time to time things are said that can hurt people’s sensibilities. But what can justify the death of a teacher? We do not kill anyone because we do not agree with them, “said an official.
