Four employees of the Turkish satire magazine were arrested for publishing a cartoon that appears to show the Prophet Muhammad.
Turkish Home Minister Ali Yarikaya has accused the Lemann paintings of “shameless” and announced that the editor-in-chief, graphic designer, facility director and cartoonist have been detained.
In a post on social media site X, Leman denied the cartoon being a caricature of Muhammad, saying, “This work does not refer to the Prophet Muhammad in any way.”
Riot police were deployed to Istanbul on Monday as hundreds protested the publication.
Protesters gathered outside Leman’s office, chanting slogans such as “Tooth for teeth, bloody blood, revenge, revenge.”
A correspondent for the news agency for Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that they saw rubber bullets and tear gas being fired to disperse the crowd.
The Turkish Justice Minister said an investigation has been launched by the prosecutor’s Supreme Prosecutor’s Office to “publicly disgrace religious values.”
“A visual representation of caricatures and all forms of prophets not only harms our religious values, but also damages social peace,” Yilmaz Tunc wrote in X.
He added that “necessary legal action will be taken without delay” to journalists in Leman.
Yerlikaya also shared a video of four employees arrested for “depressing drawings”.
The arrest warrants have also been issued to other members of the magazine’s senior management positions.
A cartoon image has appeared on social media, showing two characters floating in the sky above the city under their wings.
One of the characters is depicted in the photo saying, “Peace is above you, I am Muhammad,” while the other responds, “Peace is above you, I am Musa.”
Leman apologized to “well-intentioned readers who felt hurt,” but defended the job and rejected the claim that the manga was a portrayal of Muhammad.
“The cartoonist wanted to portray the righteousness of oppressed Muslim people by portraying Muslims killed by Israel. He had no intention of scorning religious values,” he said in a statement by X.
“We do not accept the taint that is thrown at us because there is no portrayal of the prophet. It must be very malicious to interpret the cartoon in this way.”
Leman’s editor-in-chief Tuncay Akkun, now in Paris, told AFP that the work was misinterpreted and the magazine “takes no such risk.”
He added that the backlash elicited “similarities” with the “very intentional and very worrying Charlie Hebd,” and referenced the 2015 attack on the French satire magazine after it published a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad.
Charlie Hebdo’s office was attacked by gunmen, who killed 12 people and was one of the worst security crises in French history.
