Cartoons: 30 000 Turks protest
2006-02-12 21:59
Ankara - While at least 30 000 protesters denounced the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad on Sunday in a peaceful rally in southeast Turkey, ultra-nationalists, chanting "vengeance", pelted the French consulate in Istanbul with eggs.
In Turkey's largest rally yet, men and women in head-to-toe veils stood in segregated crowds in the predominantly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, as the crowd chanted "God is Great!" and loudly recited verses from the Qur'an.
On the other end of the country, demonstrators in Istanbul hung a poster on the wall of a mosque showing a man symbolising the United States using a dog - wrapped in the Danish and European Union flags - to attack the Qur'an.
The publication of cartoons in Europe depicting Islam's prophet have enraged much of the Islamic world and set off protests from Canada to Indonesia.
Some of the protests have been violent, and the tension has noticeably increased anti-Western dialogue in the Muslim world, including in Turkey - Nato's sole Muslim member and a candidate for European Union membership.
Daily demonstrations
Although Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has received plaudits from the West for urging calm in the uproar about the caricatures, his Islamic-rooted government has criticised the drawings as disrespectful.
Several newspapers and magazines in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States have reprinted the cartoons, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper.
In Turkey, protesters have held daily demonstrations in front of diplomatic missions of countries whose newspapers have published the cartoons.
On Sunday, about 150 ultra-nationalist Turks pelted the door of the French consulate with eggs in downtown Istanbul as police blocked some of the protesters who tried to enter the building.
"Tooth for tooth, blood for blood, vengeance!" some demonstrators chanted in footage broadcast on TV.
The group also shouted: "Hands that reach the Prophet must be broken" and "God is great!"
The condemnation echoed across Turkey on Sunday.
In the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, at least 30 000 demonstrators gathered, carrying banners that read: "Long live hell for the cruel!" and "One day, the world will fall upon the infidels."
'Freedom mask has fallen off'
In Istanbul, about 2 500 protesters staged a rally outside the Beyazid Mosque, one of Istanbul's oldest, to condemn the caricatures.
"Down with the USA", "Down with Israel" and "Down with Denmark" chanted the crowd, including some women wearing black Islamic chadors.
A banner read: "Your freedom mask has fallen off and your real face was seen."
Another banner called for a boycott of all Danish products.
In protests elsewhere on Sunday, a small group chanted anti-Danish slogans in front of Denmark's embassy in Ankara as riot police, guarding the embassy under heavy snow, stood by.
- AP