Turkey takes initiative to ease cartoon crisis

ANKARA, Feb. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Namik Tan said on Wednesday that Turkey continued to take the initiative in preventing escalation of the cartoon crisis.

Speaking at a weekly news conference, Tan said that the reaction of some Muslim countries to the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad was tough.

"Public opinion in Muslim countries considered the printing of the caricatures as an attack on the sacred values of Islam, on the other hand the issue was taken from a freedom of press and expression perspective in European countries," he said.

Tan stressed that lack of dialogue between the West and the Muslim world was being manipulated by fanatics at both sides.

Read the whole story on Xinhuanet

See also:

• EU, OIC could meet to quell cartoon furor (The New Anatolian)
• Erdogan: Let’s Not Get Caught In This Sick Cartoon Provocation (The Anatolian Times)
• Iran's response to Muhammed drawings: Contest for Holocaust cartoons (The New Anatolian)
• Jesus and Muhammad Would be Ashamed of You: Caricature Controversy and Time to Mollify Escalation (Turkish Weekly)
• Erdogan: Islamophobia is crime against humanity (The New Anatolian)
• Eyewitnesses confirm: That's him (Hürriyet)
• Leaders call for calm over priest murder (The New Anatolian)
• Body of Italian Priest Sent Home (Zaman)
• 'West Should Learn to Respect Other Religions' (Zaman)