Charlie Hebdo under fire for cartoon mocking Turkey-Syria earthquake tragedy
French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has become controversy’s hot topic yet again after it mocked the devastating earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria on February 6th. Charlie Hebdo’s Twitter account shared a “drawing of the day” that showed damaged housing infrastructure and a heap of rubble with the caption: “No need to send tanks.”
The satire immediately led to massive criticism on social media, where users found the depiction akin to “hate speech” given the scale of the disaster and ongoing rescue missions. “You really have to have some nerve to do that when there are still babies waiting for help under the rubble,” wrote a user. Another user tagged Twitter owner Elon Musk to ask if the satire was in violation of Twitter policies. “Of course! This is hate speech!,” another user wrote in reply.
“You are so dishonorable, you are not human that you can have fun with it while innocent people, children, babies lose their lives here!,” reacted another user.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has declared a three-month state of emergency in ten of Turkey’s provinces. Thousands of buildings have turned into rubble with an unspecified number of people trapped underneath.
A series of earthquakes on Monday caused widespread devastation in Turkey and Syria, with rescue efforts still in progress.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has announced that the death toll from Monday’s earthquake has reached 8,754. Combined with the 2,470 known deaths in Syria. The total death toll from the quakes at the time of filing this report has been placed at 11,224.
The World Health Organization has suggested the final toll could rise as high as 20,000. A similar-sized earthquake in the region in 1999 killed at least 17,000 people.
