The Foot Soldiers of Erdogan

Musa Kart, 2017.

The Committee to Protect Journalists send out a weekly newsletter Turkey Crackdown Chronicle which week by week lays out the incidents, the harassment and sentencing made against Turkish journalists.

This week it ended its report on the sentence to two years and two months imprisonment against a construction worker, Deniz Avci, for sharing two cartoons on social media. The verdict states that his act was "insulting" to President Erdogan. Avci appealed his sentence.

One of the cartoons is the one above on Erdogan and his greeting "Hi soldier" to a line of judges as his foot soldiers. Drawn by Musa Kart, who is presently imprisoned.

No action has previously been taken against this specific cartoon and so we must deduct that the regime is not even pretending to define what is acceptable critique or not any longer: Any cartoon from the hand of Musa Kart is now automatically a punishable crime.

Let it be seen, then. Let us continue to let Musa Kart be seen, just as we must continue to let it be known that he is in prison for his work. Let us continue to share the # in his name by Cartooning for Peace and Cartoonists Rights Network International:

#freemusakart