Turkish Foreign Ministry summons German ambassador over cartoon ‘insulting’ Erdoğan

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has summoned German Ambassador to Turkey Eberhard Pohl over a cartoon in German school textbooks that it said “insults President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Turkish community in Germany.”

A written statement issued by the ministry on Nov. 3, before Pohl was summoned on the same day, described the appearance of a “libelous cartoon” about Erdoğan and the Turkish community in Germany in local supplementary textbooks in the Baden Württemberg State as “unacceptable.”

The cartoon was first published in German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in November 2011 and shows a doghouse controversially named “Erdoğan.”

The Foreign Ministry stated that the cartoon “suggested integration problems of Turks living in Germany.”  

“Such attempts made under the cover of freedom, which fuels social hatred, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and the violation of personal rights, have no place in democracies,” said the ministry, also describing the cartoon as an “unfortunate reflection of increasing racism and xenophobia.”

The spread of such cartoons attempted to create feeling of isolation among Turks and Muslims in Germany and did not serve their integration and adaptation process, the ministry suggested, adding that this was the “real reason for the failure in integration policies.”