Turkish officials have backed prime minister Tayyip Erdogan’s boycott of a press conference with Danish leader Anders Fogh Rasmussen in Copenhagen earlier this week.
Mr Erdogan walked out on Monday (14 November) over the presence of Danish-based Roj TV, which the Turkish government alleges is financed by the Kurdish rebel group PKK – a group which has been dubbed a terrorist organisation by the EU.
“You confirm the PKK as being a terrorist organisation, however, I don’t approve nor understand your tolerance for the broadcasting company that provides patronage for this terror organisation,” Mr Erdogan said to Mr Rasmussen according to Turkish online daily Zaman online.
Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul said later in the week that every Turk should react the same way.
Senior military officer Yasar Buyukanit indicated: “Turkey is at war with PKK. Therefore, the prime minister simply cannot accept that a representative from the PKK TV-channel is present at the press conference.”
“If the…IRA or al-Qaeda had a similar TV-station, would they have had permission to sit in the room and cover the prime minister’s press conference?” a columnist for the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet wrote, adding that the Danish liberal prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen supports terrorists.
