A government official said the Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned the Belgian ambassador to Ankara today after a Belgian court blocked the trial of around 30 people with alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The convocation was decided after the Brussels Court of Appeal ruled that the defendants could not be prosecuted for participating in the activities of a terrorist group because they claimed that the PKK is not a terrorist organization.
Belgian law states that the label of terrorism does not apply to forces engaged in an armed conflict, even if the group has been labeled as such by the European Union, the United States and Turkey since what it undertook in the 80s. an insurrection in Turkey which, to date, has resulted in the deaths of around 40.000 people.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said today that the Belgian court's ruling is not acceptable.
"This decision, as it stands, provides terrorist organizations with a very dangerous area of exploitation," the ministry said.
The Foreign Ministry summoned the Belgian ambassador, Michel Malherbe this morning, to whom the Turkish government's unease about the decision taken by the Belgian court was communicated.
Following the failed military coup attempted in 2016, relations between Turkey and EU states have deteriorated so much that Ankara has accused Europe of not supporting the country adequately and hosting people allegedly involved in the attempted coup. , - as well as the PKK.