Turkey slams PKK remarks by EP’s rapporteur

By Merve Aydogan

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish EU Minister Omer Celik on Sunday criticized the European Parliament's Turkey Rapporteur Kati Piri over her recent remarks in which she said “for us… the PKK and its variations are not a threat."

Referring to Piri’s statement, Celik wrote on his Twitter account “such wrong views" will not be taken seriously by the Turkish side.

"Piri partly continues with the wrong view by saying that 'the number one threat for Turkey is not Daesh, but PKK'. It is actually very rare to see such an open statement of this ugly approach towards terrorism," he added.

Celik asserted that Turkey is the only country which is fighting against both Daesh and PKK terrorists "at the same time and on equal footing."

"It is obvious that PKK is supported in some parts of Europe. When Turkey was attacked by Daesh, we saw solidarity in some European cities by projecting Turkish flag on public buildings. But we never saw such solidarity when PKK attacked on us," the minister added.

"As Piri and similar circles think that mankind is living only around their geography, they only regard the ones as terrorists who threaten them, but they don’t perceive any threat from the ones who attack on others. It is clear that there is a problem here about how they view humans even before how they view terrorism," Celik said.

He stated that the "wrong view" on such terror groups allow them to "easily find ideological habitats" and described Piri with such "wrong view" reporting on Turkey at the European Parliament as "unfortunate".

"It is a tragedy that a politician, who doesn’t have the abc level knowledge on these issues or who rejects these even if she knows them, is the rapporteur for Turkey in the biggest parliament of Europe," he said.

The EU minister further asserted Turkey's commitment to continue its fight against all kinds of terror groups including Daesh and PKK.

The PKK -- recognized as a terrorist group by the EU, U.S., and Turkey -- has waged a three-decade war against Turkey, taking 40,000 lives in the process. The PYD/PKK and YPG/PKK are its Syrian branches.

In addition to martyring Turkish security personnel, the PKK has also killed women and children during its three-decade war against Turkey.