Boris Johnson wins 'most offensive Erdogan poem' competition

Former London Mayor Boris Johnson has won the top prize in a conservative media contest to create the most offensive poem about Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The competition was launched by the UK's right-wing Spectator magazine, of which Johnson was formely editor, in response to the Turkish leader's repeated attacks on free speech.

"I'm pleased to announce that we have a winner of The Spectator's President Erdogan Offensive Poetry competition," wrote the right-wing British writer and political commentator Douglas Murray on the magazine's website on Wednesday.

"The author of this winning entry is former Mayor of London and chief Brexiteer, Boris Johnson MP."

Er... What rhymes with Ankara?

The prize-winning poem was recited off-the-cuff by the British politician in an interview with the Swiss weekly magazine Die Weltwoc.

"There was a young fellow from Ankara, who was a terrific w*nkerer," Johnson mused.

"'Til he sowed his wild oats, with the help of a goat. But he didn't even stop to thankera," he climaxed.

Having only shared his moment of poetic wit in the interview, the Conservative Party leadership hopeful was later surprised to discover that a reader had entered his poem as an official entry to the competition.

Entrants were urged to be "as filthy and disgusting as possible", in protest - after German comedian Jan Bohmermann read an insulting poem about Erdogan during one of his late night comedy televised shows.

The routine included a poem in his skit in response to Erdogan's clamp-down on free speech in Turkey, which has included the arrests of five men for making insulting remarks about their leader on social media.

	Not just a smiley face: President Erdogan does not take insults lightly [Getty]

After a complaint from Turkey, Bohmermann's show was pulled and the comedian forced to go under police protection. 

To make matters worse, the 35-year-old then faced prosecution in Germany for his light-hearted comedy swipe at the president.

Johnson - who himself is of Turkish descent - described Bohermann's case as a "scandal", and criticised the decision by a Hamburg court on Tuesday to prevent the tirade that landed the comedian in trouble being repeated.

The Spectator's Murray said he received thousands of entries in the competition. 

"Erdogan may imprison his opponents in Turkey. Chancellor Merkel may imprison Erdogan's critics in Germany. But in Britain we still live and breathe free," he breathlessly wrote on the website. 

"We need no foreign potentate to tell us what we may think or say. And we need no judge, especially no German judge, to instruct us over what we may find funny."

Yes to free speech, Muslims... no

Alongside his free speech activism, Murray is also a strong critic of multiculturalism, with a particular distaste for Muslim migration to the UK.

Following the Paris terror attacks in November, The Spectator writer urged French President Francois Hollande to confront "failed integration". Although he admitted that "most Muslims" do not perpetrate acts of terror, "too many people urge on that small segment or think it is in some way justifiable".