The Charlie Hebdo Affair in Turkey: Balancing Human Rights and Religious Rites

Abstract

This chapter is concerned with how the Charlie Hebdo Mohammed cartoons affair was conceptualized and regulated in Turkey, an Islamo-secular country. It explores how the journalistic field of Turkey, which is ensconced in an increasingly militant Islamist religious field, juggled the tension between the human right of freedom of expression and Turkish expectations of respect for the sacred in the context of the Charlie Hebdo affair. It analyzes the contradictory actions of the Turkish government in attending the marches républicaines in Paris, in support of Freedom of expression, while at the same time, banning Charlie Hebdo's Je Suis Charlie Mohammed cartoon and prosecuting Turkish journalists who republished it. We also explore the collective action undertaken by Turkish magazines to show solidarity with Charlie Hebdo, as well as the censorious prosecution of cartoonists and journalists from the Turkish newspaper, Cumhuriyet, for republishing the Je Suis Charlie cartoon.