Wed 28 October 2020:
“I don’t need to say anything to those scoundrels who insult my beloved prophet on such a scale,” Erdogan said
Turkey’s president on Wednesday filed a criminal complaint against French magazine Charlie Hebdo for insulting him.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has dismissed French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s efforts to ridicule him, saying he has nothing to say about “scoundrels who insult his beloved prophet”, as Turkish authorities vow to take legal and diplomatic steps in response.
Through his lawyers, Recep Tayyip Erdogan filed the complaint over the magazine publishing “loathsome so-called cartoons” purportedly of him.
Erdogan on Wednesday blasted the “scoundrels” at Hebdo for mocking him in a front-page cartoon.
“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 Justice and Development (AK) Party’s lawmakers in the parliament.
Erdogan said he had not personally seen the Hebdo drawing because he did not want to “give credit to such immoral publications”, calling it “disgusting” nonetheless.
In a criminal complaint submitted to prosecutors in the capital Ankara, lawyer Huseyin Aydin singled out the magazine’s management and cartoonist, saying the offensive content amounted to “criminal libel” that is “not covered by freedom of expression.”
Earlier today Ankara prosecutors also launched a criminal probe into Charlie Hebdo’s management for insulting the president, an offense under Turkish law.
Turkish officials have denounced the magazine for publishing the deeply offensive content on Tuesday.
Speaking at his ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party’s parliamentary group meeting, Erdogan said he would not even look at the magazine, and added: “We are in a period when hostility to Islam, Muslims, disrespect for the Prophet [Muhammad], is spreading like cancer in Europe, especially among leaders.”
Erdogan has also criticized French President Emmanuel Macron for explicitly defending the cartoons as well as sowing an atmosphere of Islamophobia and persecution of Muslims.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
