07 Feb 2023; MEMO: French magazine, Charlie Hebdo, has sparked outrage with a new cartoon mocking Turkiye after the country was hit on Monday by two deadly earthquakes, Anadolu News Agency reports.
The cartoon, posted on Twitter under the heading "cartoon of the day", shows buildings near collapse and lying in rubble, a flipped-over car, and piles of debris in the quakes' aftermath.
"Earthquake in Turkiye," is written above the cartoon, and the words "No need to even send tanks" at the bottom.
Internet users voiced frustration and anger over Charlie Hebdo, billed as a satirical weekly, publishing the cartoon even as frantic search and rescue efforts continue to rescue survivors of the deadly disaster.
Referring to a 2015 attack on Charlie Hebdo, which killed 12 people, Alexandre Boisson, a former member of the SDLP bodyguard service to two French presidents from 2002 to 2011, said on Twitter: "My colleague, Franck Brinsoloro (RIP) died to protect you. If your pen becomes murderous and leads to sacrificing other colleagues from the SDLP, you have to appear in court for incitement to hatred."
Yigit Ongen, a French-Turkish user on Twitter, said he was in Paris when Charlie Hebdo was attacked in 2015 and took part in marches to support them.
READ: Turkish MP, family killed in earthquake
"However, it has upset me to see you have no spirituality. Thousands of people are living and (trapped) under debris," he added.
The Bosphorus Institute, a Paris-based independent think tank working to strengthen friendship between France and Turkiye, slammed the cartoon as "shameful, pathetic and pitiful."
"This cartoon is nothing but shameful," Francois Burgat, a political scientist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, told Anadolu.
Charlie Hebdo is also notorious for its cartoons insulting the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.
Over 3,500 people were killed and 22,000 others injured in 10 provinces of Turkiye after two strong earthquakes jolted southern Turkiye, according to the latest figures, released as search and rescue efforts continue. Some 8,000 people have so far been rescued.
Early Monday, a 7.7 magnitude tremor struck the Kahramanmaras province, then about nine hours later, a 7.6 magnitude quake also centred in Kahramanmaras rocked the region, affecting several other provinces.
The earthquakes were also felt in several neighbouring countries in the region, including Lebanon and Syria.
