World Bulletin/News Desk

The disputes regarding the cartoons that insulted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continue to make headlines. German government spokesman Steffen Seibert in a public statement said; “We are weighing this light of caricature art and freedom of thought. The best course of action for politicians who take issue with such things is to have a calm attitude. In Germany there is a firm belief of freedom of thought and art and we are weighing the caricature within this paradigm.

Caricaturists Achim Greser and Heribert Lenze have said that they are at a loss trying to understand the negative reaction from Turkey.

The caricature in question is in a students workbook in schools in the district of Baden Wurttemberg. The District Minister in a previous press announcement had criticized Turkey's response to the incident. “I fail to understand what can make the Prime Minister Erdogan so angry, annoyed and lose his temper”. Its is obvious that it is a caricature. This reaction, I beleive, is Erdogan's way of making his people forget their issues and distracting them from the real agenda.”

The Turkish Department of Foreign Affairs alleges that this incident is proof of Germany's increasing xenophobia and racism; Germany's Ambassador in Ankara Eberhard Pohl was called to the department on Monday.

The Caricature

The caricature was first published in 2011 in the Frankfurter Sonntag Newspaper. However when it was first noticed in the Baden Wurttemberg States' childres workbooks disputes arose. In the caricature, two people wearing traditional Bavarian clothes are sitting in a mountain house at a table  in a restaurant opposite the Turkish owner who speaks with a Bavarian accent. The Bavarian whose mouth is burning, speaking at the owner who is standing, says that he didn't order anything with chilli. On one side there is a dog kennel labelled “Erdogan”. On the other side of the kennel, there is a sign with “Belly dancing today” on it. Under the caricature,  there is the caption “Turks in Germany for 50 years, a success story” caption.