Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is suing French magazine Le Point over an article which referred to him as an “eradicator” and accused him of ethnically cleansing the Kurds.

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The piece, published Wednesday, did not mince words when it came to Turkey’s leader and his incursion into Syria’s northeast, dubbed ‘Operation Peace Spring.’ The article, titled ‘Erdogan the Eradicator,’ accused him of seeking to “ethnically cleanse” and “massacre” Syria’s Kurds.

The publication invoked Erdogan’s wrath. Just two days later, he filed a criminal complaint in Turkey against Le Point’s editor-in-chief Etienne Gernelle and the article’s author, Romain Gubert. The pair allegedly “insulted the president” and expressions used in the article amounted to slander that cannot be justified by the freedom of speech concept, the complaint said.

In addition to legal action, the Turkish president’s office issued a scorching response to the publication, targeting France as a whole. Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Twitter that it was not up to the French to lecture anyone about “ethnic cleansing,” given the country’s bloody colonial past.

“France, that colonized many African countries like Algeria and Morocco, that massacred thousands of people, practiced the slave trade and watched the genocide in Rwanda. And a French magazine launches a slander of ethnic cleansing against us!” Kalin stated.

La France qui a colonisé de nombreux pays africains comme l’Algérie et le Maroc, qui a massacré des milliers de personnes, pratiqué le commerce des esclaves et qui a regardé le génocide au Rwanda.Et un magazine français qui a lancé une calomnie de nettoyage ethnique contre nous! pic.twitter.com/nmc2CuY7h6 — Ibrahim Kalin (@ikalin1) 24 октября 2019 г.

The true reason behind such attacks is the “hard blows” Ankara delivered to the French “pawns” in Syria, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the spokesman claimed.

“Kurds are not your proxy and will not be. Your days of colonization are over,” he added.

The angry reaction of the Turkish presidency, however, has seemingly left Le Point unshaken. The magazine dismissed all the allegations as an attempt to impose censorship on “the countries where the press is free” and vowed not to give in to Ankara’s pressure.

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It’s not the first run-in with Turkey’s leader, the magazine said, mentioning another scandal involving Erdogan in May 2018, when the magazine’s cover featured his photo with the caption: “The Dictator.”

At the time, the magazine was also criticized by the Turkish president, while the posters featuring the cover were vandalized by his supporters in France. The editorial board also received direct death threats, according to Le Point.

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