Turkish minister slams Swiss government over PKK rally

By Omer Ertugrul and Sercan Kucuksahin

YOZGAT, Turkey (AA) - The Turkish justice minister on Sunday criticized the Swiss government for allowing the members and sympathizers of the PKK terrorist group to hold a mass meeting targeting Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Bekir Bozdag's remarks came after approximately 250 PKK members and supporters took part in a rally in front of the federal parliament building in the Swiss capital Bern on Saturday. In the meeting, a banner read "Kill Erdogan", picturing him with a gun pointed at his head.

Bozdag said Swiss police did not do anything to prevent "this terror attack" and "allowed a banner calling for the death of a country's president".

"On the contrary, they ensured their safety so that they could safely carry out this terrorist attack. This is a huge mistake.

"This is unfortunately a violation of diplomatic conventions. It also means interfering in Turkey's internal affairs ahead of the [April 16 constitutional] referendum," he said, adding the Swiss government had also destroyed European values.

Bozdag urged for a joint struggle against all terrorist groups, calling them "the enemies of humanity".

“There is no such thing as a good terrorist or a good terrorist group. But as we see, some European contraries discriminate between terrorists and terror organizations.

"They provide high-level protection for anti-Turkey terrorist organizations, and their members. A lot of such terrorists live in Switzerland and some other Western countries," he said.

The justice minister went on to say that some members of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) -- which the Turkish government accuses of orchestrating last July's coup attempt -- were also protected by these countries, and warned that this would "hurt them eventually".

"Because terrorism does harm even those who enable it".

The Swiss Green Party also supported Saturday's rally, which was also attended by supporters of the far-left terrorist group DHKP-C, and YPG, the armed wing of PYD, which is the Syrian offshoot of the PKK.

During the rally, speakers called for a No vote in the upcoming referendum in Turkey.

Bozdag said Turkey and the Turkish nation would give the biggest response to all of these terror groups and the countries supporting them with a Yes vote.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry summoned Saturday the Swiss counsellor in Ankara to convey the government's reaction to the rally, as Ambassador Walter Haffner was out of the city.

The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- resumed its armed campaign against Turkey in July 2015 and since then has been responsible for the deaths of approximately 1,200 security personnel and civilians, including women and children.