Caricaturist Baruter Threatened

Caricaturist Bahadır Baruter announced that he was threatened and insulted via the internet because he designed a deck of cards with Ottoman figures resembling insects.

Baruter participated via the phone in the "5N1K" program on CCN Türk. Host Cüneyt Özdemir asked the caricaturist whether he was concerned. Baruter answered,

Baruter: We will probably take further steps backwards

Baruter said that he wanted to depict figures of Ottoman sultans instead of the common drawings borrowed from European royalty.  "People who supposedly followed my work benevolently for years now confronted me with criticism and asked why I bring our respectable culture together with a despicable insect. Compared to the past, we are going further backwards in my opinion" he argued.

Barbarosoğlu: He should manage to ignore the curses

Fatma Karabıyık Bararosoğlu, writer for the Yeni Şafak newspaper, who was also a guest of the program, emphasized that the internet is hosting a language of violence which should not be accepted. Addressing Baruter, she asked him to "ignore the curses" conveyed against him via the internet.

Barbarosoğlu indicated that especially topics regarding the Turkish-Kurdish issue and gender issues are being approached with susceptibility in Turkey. "Susceptibility should not be applied against history", she said. (EÖ/VK)