MESOP SAMPLER : TODAY’S TURKISH REACTIONS ON CHARLIE HEBDO SATIRICAL WEEKLY

Turkish Reactions To ‘Charlie Hebdo’ Terror Attack: Erdogan Accuses Western Hypocrisy, Racism, Hate Speech, Islamophobia; Islamist/Pro-AKP Media Justify It; Secular Media Mourns

In Turkey’s Islamist pro-AKP media, there were justifications for the January 7, 2015 terror attack on the office of the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Headlines and columns carried claims that France was reaping what it had sowed, and that Charlie Hebdo had insulted the Prophet Mohammad and provoked Muslims.

While the AKP leadership condemned the attack, it also blamed the West for it; furthermore, its main concern was that it would deepen anti-Muslim sentiment.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed Western hypocrisy, racism, hate speech, and Islamophobia, saying, “We must be aware of [the West’s] plots against the Muslim world.” Additionally, an AKP MP, Ali Sahin, claimed, in a series of tweets, that the attack had been staged, like “on a movie set.”

A billboard erected in the AKP-ruled city of Tatyan, in eastern Turkey, read: “Salute to the Kouachi brothers, who avenged the Messenger of Allah [i.e. Muhammad]/May Allah accept your martyrdom/ When you [i.e. the West] strike, it is democracy when we avenge, it is terrorism.”

OdaTV.com, January 10, 2015.

Turkey’s non-Islamist media, particularly cartoonists, reacted emotionally to the attack. Journalists and cartoonists rallied in Istanbul carrying signs reading “Je Suis Charlie.” The Turkish anti-Islamist satire periodicals Leman and Penguen both commemorated the events: Leman blacked out its Facebook and Twitter profile photos, and the Penguen magazine’s trademark penguin was depicted weeping. Leman and Penguen were threatened in Turkey’s Islamist media and on social media, and secular media figures were harshly criticized.