Turkey blasts Czech president’s statements

ANKARA- Anadolu Agency

Turkey on March 23 criticized the continuing “defamatory and false” claims made about Turkey by the president of the Czech Republic.     

"We observe with great regret that Czech President Milos Zeman continues his defamatory and false statements targeting our country," Hami Aksoy, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in a statement.    

Zeman, at a panel held in Vintirov province of his country, reportedly accused Turkey of siding with ISIL due to “ideological reasons” and of providing logistical assistance to the group while it stormed Iraq and Syria in the previous years.

"The persistence of these unfounded slanders reflects a purely malevolent approach," said Aksoy, adding that this is harming both the office Zeman occupies and the people he represents, who are friends of Turkey.     

He explained: "Such unfounded claims against a country at the forefront of the fight against ISIL, which has taken its troops directly to the field and had martyrs during the fight, only exposes the weakness of the author of the slanders.     

"Nobody has the power to defame our country, which has played the biggest part in fight against ISIL, with slanders lacking wisdom and intelligence."