The downfall of a much-loved satirical cartoon magazine over a comic strip that hardliners claimed ‘insulted religious values’ suggests that humour and caricature are among the many casualties of ongoing government crackdown on media.
For 40 years the weekly satirical magazine Leman was published in Turkey. But on June 26, a cartoon appeared depicting Gaza under fire and featuring two figures named Muhammed and Musa [Moses]. In one scene, the two men introduced themselves as follows:
– Assalamu alaikum [peace be upon you], I am Muhammed.
– Wa alaikum assalam [peace be upon you too], I am Musa.
The magazine’s publishers said the cartoon was about the plight of the Palestinian people. However, a large group of protesters claimed that the cartoon had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad, which is forbidden in Islam, and stormed the magazine’s offices in Istanbul. Chanting: “We want Sharia [Islamic law]”, they smashed the windows and attempted to burn down the building.
A member of Leman‘s staff, who asked to remain anonymous because of the situation, said: “This was the funeral of the magazine.”
The events did not end there. The prosecutor’s office opened an investigation. Five employees of the magazine were detained, regardless of their involvement with the cartoon, on charges of “publicly insulting religious values” for allegedly depicting figures of the Prophet Muhammad and the Prophet Moses.
They were forced to lie on the ground, handcuffed behind their backs during their arrest. The cartoonist, Dogan Pehlevan, was charged with “inciting hatred and hostility or insulting the public” and with “insulting the president”. The magazine’s managing editor, Zafer Aknar, the graphic designer, Cebrail Okcu, manager Ali Yavuz, owner and editor-in-chief Tuncay Akgun, and the managing editor, Aslan Ozdemir were all charged with “inciting hatred and hostility or insulting the public”.
Five employees were arrested; the editor-in-chief could not be, however, as he was abroad. Meanwhile, prison sentences ranging from four-and-a-half to seven-and-a-half years were requested for all six.
The prosecutor’s office also ordered the confiscation of the magazine’s final issue containing the cartoon, and the magazine ceased publication. Access to its website was blocked from July 1.
The distribution company, which held a monopoly in this field in Turkey, unilaterally terminated its contract. The printing house also unilaterally cancelled its contract. The magazine could no longer be printed or distributed. It has not been published since then.
Meanwhile, on the night of the demonstration, a psychologist, Asli Aydemir, publicly confronted the people who were chanting slogans in front of Leman magazine’s office. She was immediately arrested on charges of “resisting arrest”. Five months later, she remains in custody. An indictment has been raised and her trial is set for February 2026.
Months later, access to Leman magazine’s website at leman.com.tr is still blocked. Its Instagram account was also shut down under a different pretext; only its X account with around 600,000 followers remains accessible, but the cartoonists, under threat of arrest and imprisonment, are not drawing or publishing any more cartoons.
Leman’s editor-in-chief, who has been a fugitive abroad for months, cannot return home. His trial is scheduled for May 2026, but even if the case is dropped, he does not believe Leman will be able to reappear.
In short, a relaunch seems impossible. Even if the cartoonists start drawing, there is no company to print and distribute the magazine. A magazine founded back in 1985 by a few cartoonists has become a thing of the past, after 40 years.
Leman’s most important feature, unlike all other magazines, was that it belonged solely to the artists and wasn’t backed by a large company. They never accepted advertising and their principle was to survive solely on sales. Leman emerged, survived and achieved success under these principles.
Over 40 years, Leman also transformed into a cultural club; 18 cafes were opened under the same name, serving as cultural centres for young people. The number eventually rose to 30. However, owing to the pandemic, the number of cafes fell and following recent events, due to fear and threats, they have closed one by one and will become a part of history, too.
I spoke with one of the pioneer founders of the magazine, on condition that his name would not be mentioned. He recalled that Leman was born from within Girgir magazine, which came before it and sold hundreds of thousands of copies, causing queues in front of newsstands.
“Turkey is a special country when it comes to humour and caricature,” he said. “For example, the anecdotes of Nasrettin Hoca [a legendary witty medieval Sufi figure] are unique to Turkey. The Karagoz and Hacivat play is also unique to Turkey; both are oppositional and criticise the powerful. Nasrettin Hoca does this with his anecdotes, while Karagoz and Hacivat, a shadow play, does it with words through two figures behind the curtain. That is why caricature magazines were very successful in Turkey.”
Those people I spoke to are now on trial. They are afraid and have been receiving threats. Even today, on X, some extremists say that the Leman staff have not been punished as they should be. The Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris in 2015, when 12 staff members were killed by Islamists, is cited as an example. Their families are also under threat. They want the case to be concluded as soon as possible so they can become invisible in society, escape the threats, and return to their lives in safety.
Art, political humour and caricature, by their very nature, always disturb certain circles. In Turkey, the decline in democracy and freedom of expression in the last quarter-century has also dried up the environment in which caricature flourished. Both the number of magazines and readers have fallen, and successive lawsuits have frightened cartoonists.
Freedom in freefall under one-party rule
Turkey has been under the rule of a single political party for the last 23 years. The country has declined economically, democracy has declined, media and freedom of expression have declined, and most importantly, the rule of law has declined.
The checks and balances mechanism, essential to democracy, has been destroyed, and the country’s legislative, executive and judicial branches tied to a single power. It has been impossible for the media to remain independent from this development; 95 per cent of the media are now embedded into the government through various methods.
The decline of democracy has also brought about restrictions on digital rights and freedoms.
Shutting down social media platforms has become commonplace in Turkey. YouTube and Wikipedia were shut down for three years each, and Twitter and Instagram for days.
Laws allow for the closure of certain websites without a court order. There is no official list of all banned websites because it is not published. However, according to Professor Yaman Akdeniz, it is currently impossible to access 1.3 million websites worldwide from Turkey. These include erotic, pornographic and dating sites, sites spreading organisational propaganda, pirated film sites, betting sites and money transfer sites.
Prominent journalists who cannot find a place for themselves in the media are trying to express their views through YouTube channels. The most famous of these is Fatih Altayli, who quickly reached 1.6 million subscribers. Around the time Leman magazine was shut down, he was arrested in June on the charge of threatening the president in a speech, and sentenced to 50 months in prison. While Altayli was in prison, his YouTube broadcasts continued; he sent letters from jail that were then read out in the videos, which showed an empty chair to indicate his absence.
Leman reflected this situation in a cartoon on its cover that showed two police officers carrying away an empty chair, with one of the officers declaring to the chair: “We are detaining you for threatening the president.”
Altayli, who I visited in Silivri prison, said he was being punished only for being an opposition figure and called the accusations unfounded.
Pınar Turenc, President of the Turkish Press Council, who frequently visits imprisoned journalists, said in a statement: “Turkey is going through a dark period; we have never experienced such a period.”
Merdan Yanardag, the owner of Tele1 TV, who was arrested and whose news channel was also placed under state control, told visitors from the Turkish Journalists Association: “They are trying to criminalise journalism and the use of democratic rights.”
It is said widely that what happened to Leman is being used to intimidate society and restrict freedom of expression. Kerem Altiparmak, the lawyer for the artist who drew the cartoon, declared while the trial was ongoing: “The purpose of this case is to scare my client and society.”
Fikret Ilkiz, the lawyer for the Leman staff, has argued that opening the case against all five magazine employees was illegal. “According to the law, the author is responsible for the work. The graphic designer, accountant, and editor cannot be prosecuted. Opening this case is illegal and should be dismissed,” he said.
One of the cartoonists who founded Leman – who wanted to remain anonymous – summarised the situation: “Criticism is employed where [the target has] a sense of shame. If there is no sense of shame, it has no effect.”
Unfortunately, in the period that Turkey is currently going through, this sense of shame has eroded and criticism has little impact.
Dogan Satmis is a journalist based in Istanbul.
Source: BalkanInsight
