Turkish Presidential Spokesman Slams NYT Over Article About Slain Kurdish Militant Leader

Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin on Saturday accused The New York Times newspaper of justifying terrorism after the newspaper suggested the recently killed Kurdish militant had been a hero to the Yazidi community

ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th August, 2018) Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin on Saturday accused The New York Times newspaper of justifying terrorism after the newspaper suggested the recently killed Kurdish militant had been a hero to the Yazidi community.

On Thursday, the Turkish General Staff said Ismael Ozden, also known as Zaki Shingali and believed to be a senior member of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Sinjar, northern Iraq, was killed in an airstrike. The US newspaper later published an article on Ozden's demise, saying that the PKK helped the Yazidi minority in 2014, when they were threatened by the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia).

"This is not journalism. This is a blatant attempt by @nytimes to justify and whitewash PKK terrorism. By the same logic, Bin Laden was a �hero to some?!" Kalin said on Twitter.

Turkey considers the PKK a terrorist organization.