French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo drew ire of Turkish officials for featuring a caricature of President Tayyip Erdogan on their cover. The officials said the caricature was a “disgusting effort” to "spread its cultural racism and hatred".
The caricature escalates tensions between Turkey and France, which have been on the edge due to cartoons for Prophet Mohammed, which were shown to school students by a teacher early this month. The teacher was beheaded on October 16.
On the teacher showing cartoons of Prophet Mohammed in a classroom, presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin wrote on Twitter, "We strongly condemn the publication concerning our President in the French magazine which has no respect for any belief, sacredness and values." "They are just showing their own vulgarity and immorality. An attack on personal rights is not humour and freedom expression," he wrote.
The cartoon on the cover of Charlie Hebdo, showed Erdogan sitting in a white T-shirt and underpants, holding a canned drink along with a woman wearing an Islamic hijab.
Turkish presidential communications director Fahrettin Altun said, "Macrons anti-Muslim agenda is bearing fruit!”. "We condemn this most disgusting effort by this publication to spread its cultural racism and hatred," Altun wrote on Twitter.
After Erdogan said over the weekend that Macron needed a mental health check, France recalled its ambassador from Ankara. On Monday, Erdogan urged a boycott of French products. The Prophet Mohammad cartoons, considered blasphemous by Muslims, have been displayed in France in solidarity. Macron has said he would redouble efforts to stop conservative Islamic beliefs subverting French values, angering several Muslims.
