ISTANBUL: Turkish police on Monday raided an Istanbul-based news magazine after it featured on its cover a photomontage portraying President Recep Tayyip Erdogan taking a selfie at a soldier’s funeral, its editor said.

Counter-terrorism police arrived at the magazine’s headquarters in the Okmeydani district of Istanbul after midnight but left after finding the building empty. Police then returned early Monday, breaking into and searching the offices of Nokta and confiscating items and documents, the magazine’s editor-in-chief Cevheri Guven wrote on his Twitter account.

“Police arrived at our doorstep. It’s 1:30 am. I think (the copies of) Nokta will be seized,” Guven tweeted.

The Hurriyet daily posted a copy of the order from Istanbul prosecutors, ordering the search, seizure of the print run and blocking of its Twitter account for “insulting the president” as well as “disseminating terrorist propaganda.”

In the photomontage, Erdogan grins for his photograph as he holds up his smartphone to take a selfie.

Behind him is the coffin of a fallen soldier draped with the Turkish flag carried by soldiers in uniform — a common sight as Turkey wages an “anti-terror war” against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.

The cover plays on claims that Erdogan is exploiting the deaths of soldiers to create a patriotic fervor ahead of November 1 elections.