The spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ibrahim Kalin, has in a tweet published early on Thursday likened the European Parliament's invitation to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) for a conference to supporting terrorism.
"The invitation of representatives of an organisation, recognised in the EU as a terrorist one, to the European Parliament is a criminal act and a blatant demonstration of support for terrorism", Kalin tweeted.
He described the parliament's disregard for insults hurled at Turkey and Erdogan by the PKK during the conference as shameful and scandalous, claiming that terrorist leaders wanted by Interpol were in attendance.
"We decisively condemn this scandalous event. Those who give the European Parliament's pulpit to terrorists with the blood of thousands of people on their hands, becomes an accomplice to PKK crimes", the spokesperson stated.
The Turkish government has been fighting the PKK, which seeks to establish a Kurdish autonomy in Turkey, since the early 1980s. The PKK and Ankara signed a ceasefire agreement in 2013, but it collapsed just two years later over several terror attacks allegedly committed by PKK militants.