Turkey summons Swiss ambassador over PKK rally

Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned Switzerland's ambassador to Ankara on Sunday over a Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rally targeting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Swiss capital Bern.

The move came a day after nearly 250 PKK members and supporters took part in a rally in front of the federal parliament building in Bern, where a banner reading "Kill Erdogan" pictured him with a gun pointed at his head, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Also on Sunday, Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag criticized the Swiss government for permitting the members and sympathizers of the PKK to hold a mass rally targeting Turkey and President Erdogan.

Swiss police did not do anything to prevent "this terror attack" and "allowed a banner calling for the death of a country's president," said Bozdag.

"This is unfortunately a violation of diplomatic conventions. It also means interfering in Turkey's internal affairs ahead of the referendum," he said, adding that the Swiss government has destroyed European values.

Bozdag vowed that Turkey would give the biggest response to all of these terror groups and the countries supporting them with a "yes" vote.

A day earlier, Turkey's Foreign Ministry summoned the Swiss counsellor in Ankara to convey the government's reaction to the rally, as Ambassador Walter Haffner was out of the city.

"We are protesting this rally that explicitly promoted violence and terrorism and has been permitted, and we ask Switzerland to take immediate legal action against this offense," the ministry said in a statement late on Saturday.

The ministry also urged Switzerland to take necessary precautions to avoid similar incidents.

Source: Xinhua