Turkey slams Charlie Hebdo’s cover of electrocuted Erdogan in tub

World
By William

Turkey has hit back at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for its latest cover, which shows a cartoon of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan being electrocuted in a bathtub.

The magazine released its weekly issue on Wednesday, three days after the Turkish elections, and it shows the presidential candidate naked and shocked by an electric lamp.

The cover text featuring the bright yellow and red cartoon reads, “Erdogan: Like Cloclo, only fate will rid us of him!”

Cloclo was the nickname of French pop singer Claude Francois, who died in 1978 when he was electrocuted while trying to fix a light bulb in his bathtub.

Several Turkish officials denounced the publication for the flip as Erdogan prepared to run in a runoff election at the end of the month to extend his 20 years in power.

“Publications such as Charlie Hebdo, whose sole motivation is to express hatred of Islam, continue to clearly target our president Erdogan because he is one of the most consistent Muslim leaders of the modern era,” Turkish communications director Fahrettin Altun said in a long statement. tweet.

“We will not fall into their trap, but we will continue to denounce their disgusting xenophobia that they try to sell as free speech,” he said.

Ibrahim Kalin, an adviser to Erdogan, also said in a tweet that the second round of elections on May 28 would prove how popular the incumbent president is.

“If the Charlie Hebdo ragout has gotten this crazy… we’re on the right track,” he said. “Our nation will give you the best answer on May 28, with an even louder voice.”

Translation: “If the Charlie Hebdo ragout got this crazy… we’re on the right track. Evil is sometimes like that. It leads the good. Don’t worry CH. Our nation will give you the best answer on May 28, with an even louder voice.”

Vice President Fuat Oktay also condemned the flip and reiterated the importance of the run-off.

Translation: “I strongly condemn Charlie Hebdo’s targeting of our president and the will of the Turkish nation under the guise of freedom of expression. Our nation and we too can see who, where and how they suffered from our president’s May 14th success. Our beloved nation will once again provide the necessary response to this mentality on May 28.”

In Sunday’s election, most polls showed Erdogan trailing opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, but the president beat Kilicdaroglu by 5 percentage points, narrowly missing out on victory in the first round.

Erdogan’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, joined the chorus of criticism of Charlie Hebdo, calling the publication “inhumane”.

Translation: “The inhuman, ignoble Charlie Hebdo continues to insult the Turkish nation. Let’s not forget! Those who praise evil are always drowning in their own hatred and mischief. The real lesson is that those who cannot defeat the free will of the Turkish nation with various games rely desperately on fate.”

Charlie Hebdo has been a source of controversy for years. Content aimed at the Muslim world in particular has sparked anger, particularly the cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

Recently, the magazine had also covered the devastating earthquakes in Turkey in February, which killed more than 50,000 people.

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