Sarkis Kassarjian: I hoped Turkey answered Mr. Jamil Bayik's claims

Journalist of Al-Nahar Newspaper, Sarkis Kassarjian, interviewed with the co-chair of Commanding Body of Kurdistan Communities Union, KCK, Jamil Bayik, published on 26^th and 27^th October.

After publishing the meeting with Jamil Bayik, Turkish Embassy in Beirut accused, Sarkis Kassarjian of propaganda for the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, PKK, and that this undermined the relationship between Turkey and Lebanon.

Journalist Sarkis Kassarjia, during special meeting with ANHA agency, said:” "In addition to what I spoke in response to the Turkish Embassy in Lebanon, it is surprising that this attitude of the Turkish Embassy to the work of a journalist is the core of the media work in general."

Adding "I would have hoped that the content of Mr. Jamil Bayik's talk and serious accusations against the Turkish army and Turkish politics in the region would have been answered rather than distributed."

On the reasons for this Turkish response, Journalist Sarkis Kassarjia, said: "Over the past three decades, many Turkish journalists have met with leaders of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), on the top the leader Abdullah Ocalan, Murad Karlyan, Jamil Bayik, in 2013 the Anatolian agency went to Qandil Mountain, many newspapers and TV channels have very high - profile meetings, but today the difference is that the Turkish Government is looking for a reason to raise an issue that is linked internally to the national group, where it is trying to tighten the national nerve at home, and thus begin with unjustified and unrealistic reactions to political objectives. "

He noted, "This response really abused to Turkish media more than to al-Nahar Newspapers or me as journalist. Now, I am not talking as representative of al-Nahar Newspapers, but when the ambassador of one country talks about undermining relations with another country because of a newspaper article; This means that the said diplomat considers that all the media in this State follow the policies of the Government of this country and a spokesman for this Government. It says implicitly that, just as the media in Turkey speaks for the Government, Al-Nahar Newspapers meeting on this subject means that the Lebanese Government is giving way to terrorists, etc., and therefore this is an abuse of Turkish media. "

The Journalist concluded by saying: "The Turkish Embassy's response is unacceptable, unjustified and very illogical. The logic of media and diplomatic work, which cannot be classified or placed under any title whatsoever, is that the Ambassador attempts to bleach his face to President Erdogan that he is doing something, only because of the disappearance of the institutional practices of the Turkish state and system, has had to go to such a way to show his loyalty, activity and effectiveness. "

T/S

ANHA