Turkey's Foreign Ministry summoned Saturday Swiss counsellor in Ankara over terrorist organization PKK sympathizers' rally targeting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Bern.
A Turkish official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to media, said that the Turkish Foreign Ministry protested the meeting of the PKK terror group's supporters.
The ministry has conveyed Turkey's reaction to the deputy chief of mission of Switzerland in Ankara because the ambassador, Walter Haffner, was out of the city, the official said.
Haffner will be called to the ministry tomorrow (Sunday), the official added.
President Erdoğan was targeted in the rally held with a banner that read "Kill Erdoğan".
In a statement issued late Saturday, Turkish Foreign Ministry said: "We are protesting this rally which explicitly promoted violence and terrorism and has been permitted and we ask from Switzerland to take immediate legal action against this offense."
Supporters of the terrorist PKK, DHKP-C, and YPG took part in the rally in front of the Federal Parliament building, located in Parliament Square in Bern.
The Swiss police did not intervene against the banner, which had a photo of Erdogan, a gun pointed to his head and said "Kill Erdogan" on it.
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland (SP) and The Swiss Green Party also supported the rally, which was attended by approximately 250 PKK supporters. Around 3,000 people were expected to show up at the rally. PKK supporters shouted slogans against Turkey and Erdogan.
Feleknas Uca, a deputy of Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) from Diyarbakir province gave a speech at the rally. Social Democratic Party of Switzerland (SP) deputy Laurence Fehlmann Rielle, Federal Member of the Green Party Sibel Arslan and Chairman of the Swiss Association of Trade Unions Paul Rechsteiner also attended the rally.
During the rally, the speakers called for a "No" vote in the Presidential referendum which will be held on 16 April in Turkey.
- PKK not on the list of terrorist groups in Switzerland
The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU, is not on the list of terrorist organizations in Switzerland. However, in the annual security report entitled "Switzerland's Security 2015", published by the Swiss Federal Defense, Civil Defense and Sports Ministry, the PKK was described as "a group with non-decreasing potential of violence and an extremist terrorist group that may resort to violence."
The Turkish foreign minister demanded last November that Switzerland and other countries either take measures against PKK terrorists or extradite them to Turkey.
"Our demands from Switzerland and other countries with regards to [the fight against] terrorism are totally within the scope of international law," Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told a press conference with his Swiss counterpart Didier Burkhalter in Switzerland's capital, Bern last November.
The constitutional changes have been discussed since Erdoğan was voted president in August 2014. The 18-article bill was passed by parliament in January, with 339 votes in favor -- nine more than needed to put the proposal to a referendum.
The reforms would hand wide-ranging executive powers to the president and the post of prime minister would be abolished. The president would also be allowed to retain ties to a political party.
Other changes would see the minimum age for parliamentary candidates reduced to 18 and the number of deputies rise to 600. Simultaneous parliamentary and presidential elections for a five-year term would be held in November 2019 under the new constitution.
The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- resumed its armed campaign against Turkey in July 2015 and since then has been responsible for the deaths of approximately 1,200 security personnel and civilians, including women and children.
