https://arab.news/57s26
- ‘We will not allow anyone to speak against our sacred values,’ says Turkiye’s president
- Cartoonists arrested amid angry protest, Erdogan’s condemnation
ANKARA, ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday condemned as a “vile provocation” a blasphemous cartoon in a satirical magazine.
The cartoon was criticized by religious conservatives and Erdogan’s ruling party, which called it an “Islamophobic hate crime,” even as the magazine Leman apologized to readers who felt offended and said it had been misunderstood.
“We will not allow anyone to speak against our sacred values,” Erdogan said in televised remarks, adding that authorities would closely follow the legal process.
“Those who show disrespect to our Prophet and other prophets will be held accountable before the law,” he said.
Four Leman cartoonists were detained late on Monday over the drawing.
FASTFACT
The government said an inquiry was launched under a penal code article that criminalizes incitement to hatred and enmity.
Crowds rallied against Leman in central Istanbul on Tuesday, despite a ban on gatherings and a heavy police presence.
Late on Monday, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya shared a video on X showing police officers detaining Pehlevan, the cartoonist, with his hands cuffed behind his back as he was dragged up a stairwell.
He also shared videos of three other men being removed from their homes and dragged into vans, one of them barefoot.
“The individual who drew this vile image, D.P., has been apprehended and taken into custody. These shameless people will be held accountable before the law,” Yerlikaya wrote.
The government said an inquiry was launched under a penal code article that criminalizes incitement to hatred and enmity.
A group called Islamic Solidarity Platform called a protest on Tuesday, prompting police to shut Taksim Square and Istiklal, the city’s busy shopping thoroughfare.
The group of around 300 protesters shouted slogans at the magazine. According to a correspondent, the protesters were far less aggressive than those who rallied on Monday night, when around 400 people tried to storm a bar frequented by the
magazine staff.