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Turkey slams Mohammed cartoons, urges restraint in protests |
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Written by turkishpress.com
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Saturday, 04 February 2006 15:49 |
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Turkey denounced Saturday the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed as provocation but called on angry Muslims around the world to keep their protests within "legitimate limits".
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he penned an open letter with his Spanish counterpart Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, to be published in the European press Monday, as part of a joint Turkish-Spanish initiative to promote East-West dialogue, sponsored by the United Nations.
In the letter, "we said that this (the cartoons) should be rejected, both ethically and politically," Erdogan was quoted as saying in Istanbul by the Anatolia news agency.
"This has no acceptable, no tolerable side," he said. "It cannot be considered as part of freedoms either."
Turkey, a strictly secular Muslim nation seeking to join the European Union, sees itself as a bridge between East and West and has undertaken a number of initiatives to bring the two sides closer.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul termed the cartoons as "provocation" and "irresposible behavior" that has harmed efforts for reconciliation.
"Of course, freedom of press should exist everywhere but people's values should be respected," he said in televised remarks.
"These amount almost to provocations -- either unconscious or deliberate on the part of some. I hope this affair will be closed without further escalation and everybody will see the mistakes they have made," he added.
The drawings, first published in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten newspaper and reprinted in Norway, France and other European countries, include a portrayal of Mohammed wearing a bomb-shaped turban and one showing him as a knife-wielding nomad flanked by two women shrouded in black.
Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin denounced the prophet's "depiction as a terrorist" but warned against violence in protests across Muslim countries.
"It's natural for Muslims to react, but those reactions should be within legitimate limits," Sahin said in the northwestern town of Yenisehir, according to Anatolia.
The cartoons sparked a huge uproar in Muslim countries, where flags have been burned, ambassadors recalled, European products boycotted and Scandinavians threatened with violence.
In Turkey, protests took place across the country Saturday while calls to boycott Danish goods mounted. No violence was reported.
In a demonstration outside the Danish embassy in Ankara, members of a shopkeepers' association brandished banners reading "Is this Western civilization?" and "Denmark, stop attacking Islam", and laid a black wreath at the mission, Anatolia reported.
In Istanbul, police stepped up security measures for a protest attended by some 200 people whose placards read "Tongues targeting the prophet will be silenced" and "Not cartoons but instruments of psychological war," the agency said. |