Turkey summons German ambassador over Kurdish festival

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s foreign ministry has summoned Germany’s ambassador in Ankara to protest the country for allowing “terror propaganda” by Kurdish militants.

The ministry said late Saturday that a festival in Cologne used “symbols” of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party or PKK, including pictures of the group’s leader Abdullah Ocalan, imprisoned in Turkey.

The PKK, considered a terror group by Turkey and its Western allies, has been waging a three-decade-long insurgency against the Turkish state. Hostilities between Turkey and Kurdish militants resumed in 2015 after a fragile ceasefire collapsed.

The ministry condemned that permission was given for the festival. The statement said Germany had “a double standard in combatting terror.”