Victim of German police abuse thanks Turkish president

By Abdulselam Durdak

FRANKFURT (AA)- A Turkish man who became the victim of police brutality in Germany on Saturday, thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his moral support, saying he will sue German police officers over excessive use of force.

"I was held in a police cell for seven hours. I was stripped naked and photographed,” Yusuf Unsal told Anadolu Agency on Monday.

The 38-year-old Unsal was forcibly arrested by the police after he protested supporters of the terrorist PYD/PKK group during a demonstration in the southern German city of Stuttgart.

A video emerged on social media on Sunday showed police brutality against him, with more than five German police officers pinning him to the ground and handcuffing him.

Unsal said he did not do anything against law, but only expressed his views when he heard supporters of the PYD/PKK group shouting anti-Turkey and anti-Erdogan slogans in a central square of the city.

He thanked President Erdogan, who telephoned him on Sunday to extend get well wishes.

The PKK has been banned in Germany since 1993, but it remains active, with nearly 14,000 followers among the Kurdish immigrant population in the country.

Ankara has long criticized Berlin for not taking serious measures against the PKK and its Syrian branch PYD/YPG, which use the country as a platform for their propaganda, fund-raising and recruitment activities.

The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- waged a terror campaign against Turkey for more than 30 years and has been responsible for the death of nearly 40,000 people, including those of women and children.

More than 1,200 people, including security force personnel and civilians, have lost their lives since the PKK resumed its decades-old acts of terror in July 2015.