Czech President Milos Zeman’s recent remarks claiming that Turkey has links to the Daesh terrorist group are defamatory, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said on Thursday.
“We strongly condemn the false and defamatory statements about our country and our president by Czech President Milos Zeman that do not correspond to reality… This is incompatible with our traditionally friendly and allied relationship with the Czech Republic,” Aksoy stated.
Aksoy recalled that Turkey had killed around 4,000 Daesh terrorists during operations conducted within the coalition to defeat the terrorist group and Operation Euphrates Shield in northwestern Syria. He stressed that Ankara contributed to the security of Europe by continuing its resolute fight against various terrorist groups.
The comment referred to the remark made by Zeman during his trip to the Karlovy Vary region on Tuesday, while commenting on an operation Ankara had launched against Kurds. In particular, he said that Turkey attacked the Kurdish militias, which were fighting Daesh, because Ankara was a “de facto ally” of the terrorist group. Zeman also claimed that Turkey provided logistical assistance to Daesh when the terrorist group occupied vast territories in Syria and Iraq.