Turkey summons Swiss envoy over rally it says supported terrorism

Turkey’s foreign ministry summoned Switzerland’s charge d’affairs in Ankara on Saturday to complain about a protest in Bern that it said supported terrorism and included a poster calling for the assassination of President Tayyip Erdogan.

Earlier on Saturday several thousand people including Kurdish protesters joined a rally in the Swiss capital calling for a ‘No’ vote in Turkey’s April 16 referendum that could give sweeping powers to Erdogan under a constitutional overhaul.

The referendum issue has already badly strained relations between Turkey and several European countries, including Germany, after they banned Turkish ministers from campaigning on their territory for a ‘Yes’ vote in the referendum.

Erdogan: Turkey may have Brexit-like referendum on EU

The Turkish foreign ministry said it expected Swiss authorities to launch a criminal investigation into Saturday’s demonstration in Bern.

“The judicial and administrative steps that will be taken by Swiss federal and local authorities will be closely followed by our ministry and our efforts on this will continue,” it said in a statement.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also phoned his Swiss counterpart to express Ankara’s anger, the ministry said.

A spokesman for the Swiss foreign ministry confirmed Ankara had summoned its envoy and said the incident would be investigated.

“The competent authorities will have to check whether the organisers of the rally have violated the permit requirements or if there are other criminal offences,” he said.

Read: Switzerland launch probe into alleged spying by Turkey