GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Swiss authorities have opened an investigation into a weekend rally against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which Ankara dubbed a “terrorist gathering,” Switzerland’s ATS news agency reported Monday.
During Saturday’s demonstration in the capital Bern, organized by Kurdish groups, some people brandished a banner showing a gun pointing at Erdogan alongside the words “Kill Erdogan.”
Turkey summoned the Swiss ambassador on Sunday to protest at the rally, claiming it was organized by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara says is a terrorist group.
An investigation targeting unidentified people over possible incitement to violence has been opened by cantonal authorities in Bern, ATS said.
Erdogan criticized the Swiss for hosting the event, warning that “you will reap what you have sown.”
Relations between Ankara and Bern have grown increasingly complex in recent days.
Swiss prosecutors last week opened an investigation into alleged spying on Turks living in Switzerland by an unspecified intelligence service after the attorney general’s office cited “concrete suspicions” of espionage.
Cantonal authorities in Zurich also tried to block Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu from campaigning earlier this month in support of next month’s referendum to expand Erdogan’s powers.
The Swiss federal government said the campaign events could go ahead, although Turkish officials called off the rally after the hotel booked for the event cancelled, and after other European states blocked similar events.
