Turkey's deputy culture minister calls Charlie Hebdo 'bastards, sons of bitches' after Erdoğan cartoon

Turkish Deputy Culture Minister Serdar Çam has called French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo "bastards" and "sons of bitches" after it published a cartoon of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Turkish anger at the caricature added fuel to a row between Turkey and France about cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, which flared after a teacher who had shown pupils the cartoons in a lesson on freedom of speech was beheaded in France this month.

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Turkish Deputy Culture Minister Serdar Çam has called French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo "bastards" and "sons of bitches" after it published a cartoon of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

"Charlie Hebdo: You are bastards. You are sons of bitches," Çam tweeted on Oct. 27.

The cartoon on the cover of Charlie Hebdo, showed Erdoğan sitting in a white T-shirt and underpants, holding a canned drink along with a woman wearing an Islamic hijab.

“Oh, the prophet!” the cartoon Erdoğan exclaims. Charlie Hebdo captioned the caricature: “Erdoğan: In private, he’s very funny.”

Turkish anger at the caricature added fuel to a row between Turkey and France about cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, which flared after a teacher who had shown pupils the cartoons in a lesson on freedom of speech was beheaded in France this month.

Erdoğan sharply criticised Macron at the weekend, saying the French leader needed a mental health check, prompting France to recall its ambassador from Ankara. On Oct. 26, Erdoğan urged a boycott of French products.

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