Turkey: Party leader condemns search of Turkish ship

By Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - The head of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) on Tuesday strongly condemned the illegal search of a private Turkish-flagged ship carrying humanitarian aid to Libya by a German frigate.

"The treatment suffered is fundamentally contrary to the law and the morality of the alliance," said Devlet Bahceli, the leader of MHP.

Speaking to his party's lawmakers in parliament, Bahceli said the search was an "immoral scheme" that constituted "banditry."

"I strongly condemn the aggressive provocation in the Eastern Mediterranean," he said, asserting that Turkey would never allow itself to be "cheated of its rights and dignity."

In the wake of the incident, Turkey sent a diplomatic note to the ambassadors of the EU and Italy as well as the German charge d'affaires, Bahceli added.

Earlier on Monday, Turkey's Foreign Ministry also decried the illegal search by the German frigate, which served under a Greek-commanded EU naval mission enforcing a UN arms embargo on Libya.

Turkey has long argued that that the embargo is carried out in a manner biased to warlord Khalifa Haftar.

The ministry said the Turkish vessel was only carrying paint, paint materials, and humanitarian aid to Libya's port of Misrata, and did not violate the UN arms embargo on the country.

Libya has been torn by a civil war since the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

A new government was founded in 2015 under a UN-led agreement, but efforts for a long-term political settlement have so far failed.