Turkey on Wednesday vowed to take “legal and diplomatic actions” over a cartoon in the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo mocking Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“We assure our people that necessary legal and diplomatic actions will be taken against this cartoon,” the Turkish presidency said in a statement.
Minutes later, the Ankara prosecutor’s office launched an investigation into the publication.
The front-page caricature of Wednesday’s edition of Charlie Hebdo sparked fury in Turkey.
The Turkish presidency condemned the “provocative actions and the abject caricature of Charlie Hebdo, which can represent nothing other than the dirty swamp of ‘hostility against the Turks and Islam’ in which Europe sinks every day a bit more”.
The cartoon was published against a backdrop of escalating tensions between Turkey and France, which have been at odds on a range of international disputes.
A debate over French policy toward Muslims, which was given new impetus by French President Emmanuel Macron’s defending of cartoons insulting Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
Erdogan has joined calls for a boycott of French goods, and said his French counterpart, Macron, needed “mental checks” over his tougher stance against Islam.
France responded by recalling its ambassador to Ankara.
Source: Agencies
