UPDATE - Turkey: Opposition leader slams German Islam Conference

UPDATE WITH MORE REMARKS OF OPPOSITION HEAD

By Muhammet Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader on Tuesday called the German Islam Conference (DIK) held last week "a scandal".

Addressing his party's parliamentary group meeting, Devlet Bahceli recalled that the conference was opened by German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, "who said that Islam does not belong to Germany."

"The conference which convened with the slogan of 'Islam in Germany and for Germany' is a scandal, it is carelessness and an insult on our belief," said Bahceli.

He also criticized the choice of food being served at the conference, namely sausage made of pork.

"What does 'Islam for Germany' mean? What does pork have to do in a conference on Islam?" he said, adding that Islam does not belong to any country, but it is the only religion before God.

According to the German government, roughly 4.5 million Muslims are living in Germany, accounting to about 5.5 percent of the total population.

The 4th German Islam Conference was held on Nov. 28 in the capital Berlin.

In 2006, the German Islam Conference opened the first institutionalized dialogue between representatives of the German government and of Muslims in Germany.

- ‘US is indifferent to code of alliance’

The MHP leader also criticized the U.S. plan to place observation posts in the east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria.

Bahceli said that the alliance between Turkey and the U.S. requires “reciprocally ethic and legal responsibility” of the parties.

"However, the U.S. is indifferent to the code of alliance. They are always side by side with terror organizations," said Bahceli.

He described the U.S. action to set up observation posts in northeastern Syria -- along Turkey’s southeastern border -- as “scandalous”.

On November, the U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said that the U.S. was placing observation posts along the Turkish border in northern Syria.

Turkey has objected to the U.S. helping the terrorist YPG/PKK, in what the U.S. calls anti-Daesh efforts, telling Washington that fighting one terrorist group with another will come to nothing.