Turkey’s Defense Ministry said it has identified the suspects involved in the removal of a Turkish flag on the border with Syria during unrest on Tuesday linked to fighting in northern Syria, describing the incident as an “organized provocation,” the Anka news agency reported.
Rear Adm. Zeki Aktürk, the Defense Ministry’s spokesperson, told reporters during a weekly meeting in Ankara that the ministry said relevant state institutions had identified those responsible and that legal and administrative action was underway. An internal investigation had been immediately launched, he added.
The incident took place following pro-Kurdish protests in the border town of Nusaybin in Turkey’s southeastern Mardin province over fighting in northeastern Syria, where Syria’s transitional government has pushed into areas long controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Turkey backs Damascus’s military campaign and considers the SDF an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies. The SDF has been the main US partner in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria.
The ministry spokesperson said a group he described as sympathizers of the PKK attempted an illegal border crossing and targeted the Turkish flag located in a former customs area.
“The illegal border crossing attempt and the attack on our flag were an organized provocation aimed at the sensitivities of our nation,” Aktürk said.
Burhanettin Duran, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s communications director, as well as Devlet Bahçeli, leader of Turkey’s far-right Nationalist Movement Party and an ally of Erdoğan, also described the incident as an open provocation.
Bahçeli accused the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), which held its parliamentary group meeting in the border town of Nusaybin on Tuesday in protest of the developments in northern Syria, of bearing primary responsibility for the incident.
The DEM Party, however, had already voiced its discomfort over the incident later on Tuesday.
In a joint statement DEM Party co-chairs Tülay Hatimoğulları and Tuncer Bakırhan said disrespect of the Turkish flag was unacceptable and ran counter to the party’s position.
“We categorically reject the flag incident that took place on the Nusaybin-Qamishli border,” the co-chairs said.