The Washington Post published July 3 a piece penned by one of the founding members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). In the article, Cemil Bayik explained the Kurdish yearning for peace. Within hours, presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin provided a searing written denunciation. Kalin criticized the newspaper, writing, “The Washington Post is openly engaged in terrorist propaganda by providing space for a terrorist on their pages.”
Kalin continued that both the United States and the European Union has the PKK listed as a terrorist organization and that the United States has issued a reward for the arrest of Bayik. Therefore, Kalin concluded that the Post had acted against US laws.