Turkish prosecutors launch probe of provocation in Sweden targeting Turkish president

ANKARA

Turkish prosecutors have opened an investigation into a criminal provocation by supporters of the terrorist group PKK/YPG in Sweden threatening the Turkish president.

The move came after the president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, filed a criminal complaint with prosecutors in the capital Ankara over the provocation.

"A criminal complaint has been filed with the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, demanding that an investigation be launched into the perpetrators due to the criminal acts targeting our President," Erdogan's lawyer Huseyin Aydin said on Twitter.

Amid a push for Sweden to take stronger action against terrorist groups which target the Turkish public and its leaders, the capital Stockholm on Thursday saw a protest which amounted to a provocation and a criminal threat.

In the demonstration, staged across from City Hall, supporters of the PKK/YPG terror group hung a figure of Erdogan in effigy by the feet.

Video footage of the incident was quickly uploaded to a social media account affiliated with the terror group, with threats and insults targeting Türkiye and Erdogan with Turkish subtitles.

Sweden's Ambassador to Ankara Staffan Herrstrom was later summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry about the incident.

Last November, supporters of the terror group PKK/YPG projected images insulting Erdogan on a Turkish Embassy building in Stockholm.

The threatening protest came as Sweden tries to reassure Türkiye that it stands against terrorists which threaten the country, such as the PKK/YPG, while seeking Ankara’s approval for the Nordic country to join NATO.

Turkish officials have said Sweden has yet to fulfill the pledges it made to join the alliance.