ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey on Thursday denounced French politicians for attending a Paris protest at the killing of three Kurds, in which demonstrators waved flags of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Clashes broke out last week between police and Kurdish protesters angry at the killing of three members of their community by a gunman on Friday.
Some protesters waved flags of the PKK, labelled a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, and posters of its jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu complained about the gathering in a call with his French counterpart, Catherine Colonna, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
“Minister Cavusoglu … stressed that it is unacceptable that French politicians’ attended events (protests) in which flags of the terrorist organisation PKK and posters of its leader were waved. He said France should not allow such activities,” the ministry said.
Turkey said on Monday it had summoned France’s ambassador to denounce French government officials’ and politicians’ “involvement in anti-Turkey propaganda”.
The French government asked police to bolster protection of Kurdish community sites after the killings, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Friday. President Emmanuel Macron said Kurds had become the target of a “heinous” attack.
(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Nick Macfie)
