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Turkey
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference with his Russian counterpart following their talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on October 22, 2019. Photo: Sergei Chirikov/pool/AFP
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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday filed a criminal complaint against the French magazine Le Point for insulting him after the magazine accused him of massacring Syrian Kurds. Erdogan appeared on the cover of the magazine’s Thursday edition, saluting under the headline: “Ethnic cleansing, the Erdogan method: The Eradicator.”
The sub-headline asks “Will we let him massacre the Kurds (and threaten Europe)?”
Erdogan’s lawyer, Huseyin Aydin, filed the lawsuit at Ankara prosecutor’s office against Etienne Gernelle, editor-in-chief of Le Point, and reporter Romain Gubert, according to Turkish state-owned Anadolu Agency.
The French magazine said they will not delete a word from their story. “Recep Tayyip Erdogan definitely has a problem with freedom,” the magazine stated on Friday, reacting to the lawsuit. It defended the report that covers details Erdogan’s “ethnic cleansing of the Kurds of Syria.”
Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria to drive them away from the border and make space to resettle millions of mostly-Arab Syrian refugees who have fled Syrian unrest since 2011.
Ankara’s operation and its plan to establish a “safe zone” in northern Syria received wide criticism from around the world. Some 300,000 people have been displaced from their homes and Kurds have accused Turkey of trying to change the demography of the Kurdish-populated region.
The Turkish government has denied the accusation, saying its targets are “terrorist groups,” the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and People’s Protection Units (YPG).
Ibrahim Kalin, Erdogan’s aide, attacked the magazine, asking how a French publication could make such a report in light of France's own history. "The French colonized many Africa countries like Algeria and Morocco and massacred thousands of people,” he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron has criticized Turkey’s military incursion into Syria.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had previously called Macron a “cockerel crowing” after the French leader had said the rule of law and human rights were regressing in Turkey.
Erdogan has a history of complaining about foreign coverage of him and his policies. He launched and later dropped a case against a German comedian in 2016.
Turkey has cracked down on domestic social media users critical of the offensive into northern Syria.
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