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Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is Threatening to Press Charges and Escalate Tensions
And it’s all over a cartoon.
This was the line Erdoğan drew for the world. If Turkey’s leadership wasn’t already a silly group of make-believe dictators, there might have been room to fall farther when it comes to the respect of the international community.
French editorial Charlie Hebdo prompted Erdoğan’s lawyers to file a criminal complaint with the Ankara prosecutor’s office. The cartoon illustrates Erdoğan, drinking alcohol, which is forbidden by almost all observant Muslims.
However, Erdoğan is not all observant Muslims. In fact, it would be hard to say that he is in any way shape or form a model Muslim worthy of being observed.
“There is no way you can defend as a lifestyle the consumption of alcohol which has no benefit to society, but on the contrary inflicts harm.” Erdoğan said. — April 26, 2013
Erdoğan clearly understands things that have “no benefit to society”. In 2014, he had a brand new Presidential Complex built, spanning 1,150 rooms and costing the country over a billion U.S. dollars. The palace was made with Erdoğan’s vision of a “New Turkey”. His opposition, however, blasts him for wasting the nation’s resources and taxpayer dollars.
