Turkey slams German Der Spiegel over provocative cover

ANKARA

Turkey on Wednesday lambasted German Der Spiegel news magazine, calling its latest special issue "a new manifestation of a distorted and prejudiced mindset".

Tanju Bilgic, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the weekly's "extremely provocative" issue, which came out Tuesday, was prepared so as to "create a negative perception, not only about Turkey but also Islam".

He said the issue was a "new manifestation of the distorted and prejudiced mindset that aimed to corrode" Turkey's image, which he said certain media outlets in Europe had been doing for a while.

The cover featured a title which read "A country loses its freedom", which Bilgic said, ignored Turkish people's struggle for democracy, freedom and rule of law during the failed July 15 coup attempt and revealed an effort to intentionally distort reality.

Bilgic also condemned the cover that called President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a "dictator". It also shows minarets soaring as missiles fired reflected in dark sunglasses worn by the Turkish president.

"We regretfully condemn the attempts to smear a president democratically elected," the spokesman said.

Bilgic said the magazine was adopting an irresponsible editorial policy favoring anti-Islam sentiment, xenophobia and discrimination.