Turkey slams Swiss paper over referendum report

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

The Foreign Ministry on March 13 blasted a Swiss newspaper over its “derogatory” remarks against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and its “misleading” report about Turkey’s upcoming constitutional referendum. 

“We strongly condemn today’s edition of the Swiss Blick newspaper, which includes insults against President Erdoğan and misleading remarks about the referendum on a constitutional amendment package in our country. We cannot accept these accusations and allegations,” spokesman Huseyin Müftüoğlu said in response to a question over the report in the newspaper Blick.

The front page of the daily - both in Turkish and in German – urged Turks living in Switzerland to vote “no” in the April 16 referendum.      

“Taking a biased and partial attitude on the referendum and calling 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 freedom of the press or journalism,” Müftüoğlu said.