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Turkey slams European Parliament for allowing pro-PKK exhibition

Xinhua, July 13, 2016 Adjust font size:

Turkey strongly condemned the European Parliament for allowing a photo exhibition organized by sympathizers of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Brussels, Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

"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 (Democratic Union Party) terrorists," said the statement.

The Foreign Ministry accused that the European Parliament, thus has been used a tool of the propaganda of a bloody terrorist organization that takes the lives of innocent people almost every day and thereby has been involved in promoting terrorism.

Turkey slams European Union for double standards in fighting terrorism. "Both IS 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," the statement said.

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

The exhibition was opened on July 12 in Brussels by Josef Weidenholzer, an MP from the social democrat group of the European Parliament, and includes photographs taken by Thomas Schmidinger, Turkish media reported.

The recognition of PKK and its offshoot PYD as terrorist organization, which sparking fresh tension between Ankara and Brussels, has been a major problem between Turkey and U.S. in fighting IS in northern Syrian. Endit