Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Western countries attacking Islam want to "relaunch the Crusades" as a row flared between Turkey and France about cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.
Erdogan said in a speech to lawmakers from his AK Party in parliament that standing against attacks on the Prophet Mohammad was "an issue of honor for us."
Earlier today, Turkey's Communications Directorate said that Turkey will take all legal and diplomatic steps needed in response to a caricature of Erdogan in the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.Top Turkish officials condemned the caricature, calling it a "disgusting effort" to "spread its cultural racism and hatred." State media later reported that Turkish prosecutors had launched an investigation into Charlie Hebdo's executives.
"Our people should have no doubt that all necessary legal and diplomatic steps will be taken against the caricature in question. Our battle against these rude, ill-intentioned and insulting steps will continue until the end with reason but determination," the directorate said.
Turkish anger at the caricature added fuel to a row between Turkey and France about cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, which flared after a teacher who had shown pupils the cartoons in a lesson on freedom of speech was beheaded in France this month.
"We strongly condemn the publication concerning our President in the French magazine which has no respect for any belief, sacredness and values," presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin wrote on Twitter.
"They are just showing their own vulgarity and immorality. An attack on personal rights is not humor and freedom expression," he said.
The cartoon on the cover of Charlie Hebdo, showed Erdogan sitting in a white T-shirt and underpants, holding a canned drink along with a woman wearing an Islamic hijab.
Turkish presidential communications director Fahrettin Altun said "Macron’s anti-Muslim agenda is bearing fruit!."
"We condemn this most disgusting effort by this publication to spread its cultural racism and hatred," Altun wrote on Twitter.
Erdogan sharply criticized Macron at the weekend, saying the French leader needed a mental health check, prompting France to recall its ambassador from Ankara. On Monday, Erdogan urged a boycott of French products.
The Prophet Mohammad cartoons, considered blasphemous by Muslims, have been displayed in France in solidarity and Macron has said he would redouble efforts to stop conservative Islamic beliefs subverting French values, angering many Muslims.