Turkey spokesman slams Swiss paper on referendum report

By Zuhal Demirci

ANKARA

A Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman blasted Monday a Swiss newspaper over its "derogatory" remarks against the Turkish president and its "misleading" report about an upcoming constitutional referendum in Turkey.

"We strongly condemn today's edition of the Swiss Blick newspaper, which includes insults against President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan and misleading remarks about the referendum on a constitutional amendment package in our country. We cannot accept these accusations and allegations," Huseyin Muftuoglu said in response to a question over the Blick news report.

The daily -- both in Turkish and German -- urged Turks living in Switzerland for a 'No' vote in the April 16 referendum.

"Taking a biased and partial attitude on the referendum and the call for Turkish citizens in their country to vote clearly in a certain way and the derogatory remarks directed against Turkey's president who has the support of his country's people can have nothing to do with the freedom of press or journalism," Muftuoglu said.