Turkish PM Erdogan: French President Hollande must explain why he met with terrorits

French President Francois Hollande must explain to the world why he held meetings with terrorists wanted by Interpol, the Turkish prime minister said at a business conference Jan.12. 

Issuing harsh criticism on European countries' treatment of the terrorist organization, Erdogan stated that the murdered Sakine Cansiz, one of the founding members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), had been placed in custody in Germany in 2007, but was released soon after.

"We notified French Interpol just two months ago," Erdogan said. "France didn't do anything about it."

 

"The French head of state must explain why he was seeing these terrorists," Erdogan said. 

Hollande had previously said he knew one of the three women killed in Paris on Jan.9 and that she was known to many political actors in the country.

 

PKK has done this before

 

Erdogan then accused the PKK of conducting similar assasinations before.

 

"Is the terrorist organization pure and clean? Have they never done this before? Many young men and children have been killed like that. Even Cansiz' fiance, Mehmet Sener, was killed like that'" Erdogan said. 

"Those who try to blame this on the state were incapable of questioning such internal assassinations within the organization," Erdogan said.

PM urges French authorities to uncover the truth in murders

Erdogan further called on French authorities to double their efforts in order to shed light on the assasinations as quickly as possible. 

"This may have been done to sabotage the ongoing process in Turkey," Erdogan said. "We expect the French state to immediately shed light on this."