Turkey has summoned the German and French ambassadors to Ankara in protest of events organized by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the two countries, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Tuesday.
The Foreign Ministry has informed the envoys of Ankara’s discomfort with the events organised by the PKK, T24 news site cited Çavuşoğlu as saying, issuing them a “stern warning” against such events.
The PKK is an armed group that has fought for Kurdish autonomous rights in Turkey for almost four decades. The group is designated as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
Some 40,000 people, many of them Kurdish civilians, have been killed in the conflict that began in 1984.
Turkey earlier this month objected to Sweden and Finland’s bids to join NATO over Ankara’s grievances with Stockholm’s, and to a lesser degree Helsinki’s, perceived support PKK militants, and also over their arms export ban.
Ahval