# Turkey arrests four LeMan staff after dispute over cartoon understood by authorities as depicting Muhammad

Turkish authorities arrested four employees of the satirical magazine LeMan after a cartoon triggered protests outside the publication’s Istanbul office and an investigation over alleged religious insult.

Interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said the editor-in-chief, graphic designer, institutional director and cartoonist had been detained, and he described the drawing as “shameless”. The justice minister said the chief public prosecutor’s office had opened an investigation for “publicly insulting religious values”. He added that any visual representation of the Prophet would harm religious values and social peace.

LeMan rejected that reading. The magazine said on X that the work “does not refer to the Prophet Muhammed in any way” and later apologised to “well-intentioned readers who feel hurt” while insisting it had not depicted the Prophet. The magazine said the cartoon was intended to show the suffering of a Muslim man killed by Israel and that it would be malicious to interpret the image as a religious insult.

Social media images of the cartoon showed two winged figures floating above a city under siege. One said “Peace be upon you, I’m Muhammed” and the other replied “Peace be upon you, I’m Musa”, with Musa the Turkish form of Moses. LeMan’s editor-in-chief Tuncay Akgun, speaking from Paris, said the work had been misinterpreted and that the magazine would never knowingly take such a risk.

The arrests came as hundreds of people gathered outside LeMan’s offices chanting hostile slogans, including “tooth for tooth, blood for blood, revenge, revenge”. AFP reported that police used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the crowd. Riot police were deployed across the area as the protest escalated.

Yerlikaya also said arrest warrants had been issued for other members of the magazine’s senior management. The response showed how quickly a disputed image can become a criminal matter in Turkey when officials believe it touches on religion.

The episode also echoes earlier global controversies over cartoons perceived as insulting to Islam. Akgun referred to the backlash as drawing similarities with Charlie Hebdo, calling that association “very intentional and very worrying”. He was referring to the 2015 attack on the French satirical magazine in which 12 people were killed.

For LeMan, the immediate issue is not just public criticism but the legal and political consequences of the state’s response. For Turkish authorities, the case is being framed as a defence of religious values and public order.

Sources

  • BBC News, sourceId 5873, on the arrests, the state investigation, the protest and the magazine’s denial.
  • BBC News, sourceId 5873, on the description of the cartoon and the Charlie Hebdo comparison.