Europol terrorism report confirms Turkey's concerns: AKP spokesperson
ANKARA- Anadolu Agency
Europol’s annual terrorism report confirmed concerns long voiced by Turkey, Turkey's ruling party spokesman said on June 30.
The PKK terror group continues using European Union territory for propaganda, recruitment, fundraising and logistical support activities, according to a report by the EU's law enforcement agency released on June 29.
In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK - listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU - has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.
France is the country that is committing crimes and playing a dangerous game in Libya, Ömer Çelik added.
Slamming French President Emmanuel Macron's comments on Turkey's role in Libya, Çelik, spokesman for the AKP, said after a party board meeting that France is repeating the mistakes that it made in Rwanda over a quarter-century ago.
He added that France is the "perpetrator in Libya" and playing "a dangerous game" there, citing the existence of mass graves found in Libya's Tarhuna city after it was recently liberated from militias aligned with renegade general Khalifa Haftar, who France supports.
"The strange thing here is that France, which supported Haftar's coup and those mass graves, is blaming Turkey," he said.
Libya has been torn by civil war since the ouster of late ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The country's new government was founded in 2015 under a U.N.-led agreement, but efforts for a long-term political settlement failed due to a military offensive by Haftar's forces.
The U.N. recognizes the Libyan government headed by Fayez al-Sarraj as the country's legitimate authority, as Tripoli has battled Haftar's militias since April 2019, a conflict that has taken over 1,000 lives.
After the discovery of mass graves in areas left behind by retreating Haftar militias, the U.N. and international jurists have expressed concern over possible war crimes.
While Turkey continues to support Libya’s internationally recognized government, Haftar has been supported internationally by Russia, France, Egypt, and the UAE.
Commenting on plans espoused by Israel to annex roughly 30% of the occupied West Bank, Çelik cited a joint declaration by nearly 1,000 lawmakers from 25 European countries expressing their concerns on the move.
"If the world does not take a stand against this, Israel will gradually destroy the legitimacy of the entire international order," he warned.
The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is seen as occupied territory under international law, thus making all Jewish settlements there- as well as the planned annexation- illegal.
