ANKARA (Al Jazeera/AFP) – Turkey has hit back at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for its latest cover, which features a cartoon of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan being electrocuted in a bathtub.
The magazine released its weekly issue on Wednesday, three days after Turkish elections, and it features the presidential candidate naked and being shocked by an electrical bulb.
The cover blurb with the bright yellow and red cartoon reads “Erdogan: Like Cloclo, only fate will rid us of him!”
Cloclo was the nickname of the French pop singer Claude Francois, who died in 1978 when he was electrocuted trying to fix a lightbulb from his bathtub.
Several Turkish officials lambasted the publication for its cover as Erdogan prepared to compete in a run-off at the end of the month to extend his 20 years in power.
“Publications like Charlie Hebdo, whose only motivation is to spew hate against Islam, continue to target our President Erdogan clearly because he is one of the most consequential Muslim leaders in modern times,” Turkish Communications Director Fahrettin Altun said in a lengthy tweet.
“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,” he said.
Erdogan has promised his supporters a “bigger victory” when they return to the polls in 12 days’ time in a run-off vote for the country’s top job.
Erdogan, who is seeking a third term as president and a five-year extension of his 20-year rule, has appeared in a buoyant mood since Sunday’s parliamentary and presidential elections.
In the face of an economic crisis, criticism over the response to February’s earthquakes and opinion polls that indicated a win for his main rival, the president emerged largely – if not totally – victorious.
Although he must face a second round against opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu on May 28, as no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote, momentum seems to be with Turkey’s electorally most successful politician.