The incident occurred after Istanbul's chief prosecutor ordered the arrest of the editors at LeMan magazine on grounds it had published a cartoon which "publicly insulted religious values".

"The chief public prosecutor's office has launched an investigation into the publication of a cartoon in the June 26, 2025 issue of LeMan magazine that publicly insults religious values, and arrest warrants have been issued for those involved," the prosecutor's office said. 

A copy of the black-and-white image posted on social media showed two characters hovering in the skies over a city under bombardment.

"Salam aleikum, I'm Muhammad," says one shaking hands with the other who replies, "Aleikum salam, I'm Musa."

But the magazine's editor-in-chief Tuncay Akgun told AFP by phone from Paris that the image had been misinterpreted and was "not a caricature of Prophet Muhammad". 

"In this work, the name of a Muslim who was killed in the bombardments of Israel is fictionalised as Mohammed. More than 200 million people in the Islamic world are named Muhammad," he said, saying it had "nothing to do with Prophet Muhammad. 

"We would never take such a risk." 

As the news broke, several dozen angry protesters attacked a bar often frequented by LeMan staffers in downtown Istanbul, provoking angry scuffles with police, an AFP correspondent said. 

The scuffles quickly degenerated into clashes involving between 250 to 300 people, the correspondent said. 

Cartoonist, two others held 

In several posts on X, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said police had arrested the cartoonist responsible for "this vile drawing", the magazine's graphic designer and two other staffers.

Police had also taken over the magazine's offices on Istiklal Avenue and arrest warrants had been issued for several other of the magazine's executives, presidential press aide Fahrettin Altin wrote on X. 

In a string of posts on X, LeMan defended the cartoon and said it had been deliberately misinterpreted to cause a provocation.

"The cartoonist wanted to portray the righteousness of the oppressed Muslim people by depicting a Muslim killed by Israel, he never intended to belittle religious values," it said. 

Akgun said the legal attack on the magazine, a satirical bastion of opposition which was founded in 1991, was "incredibly shocking but not very surprising".

"This is an act of annihilation. Ministers are involved in the whole business, a cartoon is distorted," he said. 

"Drawing similarities with Charlie Hebdo is very intentional and very worrying," he said of the French satirical magazine whose offices were stormed by Islamist gunmen in 2015. 

The attack, which killed 12 people, occurred after it published caricatures lampooning the Prophet Muhammad.

'A very systematic provocation' -

"There is a game here, as if we were repeating something similar. This is a very systematic provocation and attack," Akgun said.

Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc an investigation had been opened on grounds of "publicly insulting religious values". 

"Disrespect towards our beliefs is never acceptable," he wrote on X. 

"No freedom grants the right to make the sacred values of a belief the subject of ugly humour. The caricature or any form of visual representation of our Prophet not only harms our religious values but also damages societal peace." 

Istanbul governor Davut Gul also lashed out at "this mentality that seeks to provoke society by attacking our sacred values. 

"We will not remain silent in the face of any vile act targeting our nation's faith," he warned.