Democracy isn't just about insults, FM Çavuşoğlu says

Turkey's foreign minister on Tuesday rebuffed the French president's defense of a magazine which insulted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

"Democracy is not only about one side enforcing its insults, swearwords, and lies, but is also about taking into consideration other side's opinions and sensitivities," Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said in a tweet.

France's Emmanuel Macron on Monday criticized the removal of a poster advertising this week's cover of Le Point magazine, which shows Erdoğan with the label "dictator."

After Turks living in France protested the image, some posters at news agents in the city of Avignon were taken down.

Ömer Çelik, Turkey's EU minister, also slammed Macron on Twitter, saying: "French magazine Le Point circulated a hate crime and attacked our president with black propaganda. Our citizens in various circles in France reacted against this.

"How long have hate crimes been freedom of the press? Is it proper for Macron when the same style, hate speech, and black propaganda are used against him?"