Turkey rebukes Belgium over ‘unacceptable’ court ruling on PKK

Turkey lashed out at Belgium on Friday, accusing it of being a “weak link” in the fight against terrorism after a Belgian court ruled that an outlawed Kurdish group could not be prosecuted for terrorist activities.

A Belgian appeals court on Thursday rejected an objection to an earlier ruling by a lower court which said the activities of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Europe could not be classified as terrorism.

The court had already refused in November the prosecutor’s request to send 36 alleged PKK members to a higher criminal court, saying that “an armed campaign cannot be considered as an act of terror.”

In a statement, the Turkish foreign ministry called the decision “unacceptable” and said that Turkey would appeal the ruling.

“This decision — another example of the support given for terror groups targeting Turkey’s security and interests — has shown once again the fact that Belgium is a weak link in Europe and in the world in the fight against terrorism,” the ministry said.

“Our state will be involved in the appeal process of this unacceptable decision,” it added.

Turkey has often accused European countries of turning a deaf ear to its calls to stop PKK activities there.

Ankara has been waging a campaign against the PKK, which has waged an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984 — initially focusing on independence demands and later greater rights — that has left tens of thousands of people dead.

The PKK is listed as a terror group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.