Turkey accuses European Parliament of promoting terrorism

Turkey has accused the European Parliament of promoting terrorism by exhibiting photographs from Kurdish-controlled northern Syria.

The exhibition of 30 photos from northern Syria opened on July 12 by Josef Weidenholzer, an MP from the social democrat group of the European Parliament and includes photographs taken by Thomas Schmidinger.  

“European Parliament has become an instrument for making propaganda of a terrorist organization and encouraging terrorism w/ the exhibition,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Twitter.

Turkey has been enraged by the West's support for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in the battle against Daesh terrorists.

Ankara says the group is a terrorist organization with ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and fears the YPG will carve out an independent Kurdish state on its southern border.

Besides Ankara, the European Union and United States also consider the PKK as a terrorist organization. The PKK has been engaged in a three-decade fight for autonomy in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast.

On July 12, Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a statement in condemnation of the move by the European Parliament.

 “We condemn the opening of a photo exhibition that features the leader of the terrorist organization, the PKK, and its Syria offshoot, the PYD’s terrorists,” the statement said.

“Both Daesh and the PKK are terrorist organizations. Preferring one terror organization to another one is disrespectful to all the victims of terrorism. Double standards are seriously harming the image of the European Union,” it said.

Necessary diplomatic reactions are being expressed by Turkey’s Foreign Ministry and permanent representation in Brussels, it added.

Ibrahim Kalin, spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also denounced the move by the European Parliament.

“Making propaganda of terror organizations that target Turkish nationals every day under the roof of the European Parliament is unacceptable.” 

However, Schmidiner said the exhibit was the product of visits to northern Syria between 2013 and 2015, and an attempt to show the daily lives of its people. He said he was puzzled by the suggestion it was terrorism propaganda.

The incident comes at a time when Turkey is trying to secure visa-free travel to Europe as part of a wider agreement to curb the refugee influx into Europe.

Visa-free access to the EU is part of a deal reached between Turkey and the EU in March.

Under the deal, Ankara has vowed to control the flood of refugees crossing into Greece in return for privileges like accelerated talks on accession to the EU and billions of dollars in financial aid.

In May, the European Commission laid down a series of conditions for the visa deal to be implemented, including changes to Turkey's inclusive anti-terrorism laws so as to meet EU concerns over human rights. 

The EU demand angered Turkey with officials warning that they would drop the whole refugee accord.

Turkey has defended its anti-terror laws as fully justified given the current security problems it has in the south.

Erdogan warned in May that Ankara wanted the visa deal by October at the latest or it would block laws related to the deal to stem the flow of refugees to Europe.

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