Turkey slams tearing of its flag in European Parliament

By Burak Bir

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's foreign minister Thursday blasted at a Greek lawmaker’s tearing Turkish flag at the European Parliament.

"These racist minds know better than anybody how we crash and kick out to the sea those who dare attack our glorious flag. Europe’s spoiled and racist children should know their place," Mevlut Cavusoglu wrote on Twitter.

He urged that Europe must put an end to racism and animosity against Islam.

"[We are] Expecting European Parliament to take necessary measures against this clown," he said.

Nobody should doubt that Turkish flag will continue to wave proudly forever, Cavusoglu added.

Omer Celik, a spokesman for the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, also condemned the incident and said that by disrespecting Turkish flag, Greek deputy showed his “personality lack of character.”

"Our flag will continue to wave proudly as a symbol of independence in our country and to remind high values to humanity everywhere on earth," Celik wrote on Twitter.

Stressing that the incident also targets Europe's values, Celik added that the EU will become the address of those who want to destroy European values, if the European Parliament surrenders to racists, instead of developing democracy.

Addressing the European Parliament, independent Greek member Ioannis Lagos tore down the Turkish flag, after accusing Turkey as a source of illegal migration flowing to Greece.

Last October, Italian MEP Angelo Ciocca was suspended from activities in the assembly for several days for throwing a box of Turkish delight during a debate of Turkey’s counter-terrorism operation in northern Syria.

Lagos’ disrespectful display could draw a similar sanction.