Turkey officials slam 'disgusting' Charlie Hebdo cover depicting Erdogan

Turkish officials have lambasted French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for publishing a cover story depicting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan being electrocuted in a bathtub.

The cover, which was published on Wednesday - three days after the Turkish elections, shows the current leader naked in a bathtub after being shocked by a lightbulb.

The headline also read 'Erdogan: Like Cloclo, only destiny will rid us of him!', in a reference to French singer Claude François - nicknamed Cloclo - who was electrocuted and died in 1978 after attempting to fix a lightbulb from his bathtub.

The French weekly magazine’s cover, which has a history of publishing controversial and often racist material, prompted widespread condemnations from Turkish officials on social media.

President Erdoğan has always been a tireless advocate of regional stability and peace. He is a historic political figure with major contributions to global challenges. We deplore those who wish him ill in the strongest terms.

Publications like Charlie Hebdo, whose only…

— Fahrettin Altun (@fahrettinaltun) May 17, 2023

The Turkish Republic's head of communications, Fahrettin Altun, said in a statement on Twitter: "Publications like Charlie Hebdo, whose only motivation is to spew hate against Islam, continue to target President Erdogan clearly because he is one of the most consequential Muslim leaders in modern times."

"We will not fall into their trap but we will continue to call out their disgusting xenophobia that they try to sell as freedom of expression," Altun added.

In another tweet, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay condemned the magazine for its "targeting" of Erdogan "under the guise of freedom of expression", stressing the importance of his potential victory in the elections run-off later this month.

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu described the French publication as "inhumane" and "always drowning in their hatred and mischief".

İfade özgürlüğü kisvesi altında Charlie Hebdo’nun Sayın Cumhurbaşkanımızı ve Türk milletinin iradesini hedef almasını şiddetle kınıyorum.

Sayın Cumhurbaşkanımızın 14 Mayıs’ta elde ettiği başarının kimleri, nerede, nasıl rahatsız ettiğini milletimiz de biz de görüyoruz.

Bu…

— Fuat Oktay (@fuatoktay) May 17, 2023

This was not the first time Erdogan has been the subject of controversial news publication covers.

The British political magazine The Economist featured the phrase 'Erdogan Must Go', on the cover of an issue entitled 'The Most Important Election of 2023: Turkey and The Future of Democracy', earlier this month.

Erdogan, who has served as president since 2014, slammed the magazine, saying: "We will not allow our domestic politics to be directed and the national will to be swayed by the covers of magazines, which are the operational apparatus of global powers".

Charlie Hebdo has long faced criticism for publishing cartoons and stories deemed racist, Islamophobic and xenophobic. The magazine sparked anger in the Muslim world for its depiction of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as Islam.

The publication had also portrayed France's former justice minister Christiane Taubira, a Black woman, as a monkey, and appeared to mock the 2015 death of two-year-old Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi.

Erdogan, who heads the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), will face opposition rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu in a run-off on 28 May. Both presidential hopefuls failed to secure the 50 percent threshold needed to win outright in Sunday’s elections.