Türkiye's justice and defense ministries launched an investigation into a terrorist YPG-linked attack on the Turkish flag along the Nusaybi-Qamishli border line with Syria, with at least 14 people already detained.
The first statement on the probe was announced by the Defense Ministry late on Jan. 20. “An administrative investigation has been launched into the attempt by terrorist organization sympathizers to cross the closed border gate in Nusaybin and the attack on our flag at the border gate,” the statement said.
Nusaybin, on the border of Syria, became the center of protests after the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) organized a massive rally in support of YPG on Jan. 20.
Some protestors clashed with the security forces while another group tried to attack the Turkish flag on the border.
Speaking to reporters on Jan. 21, Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç informed that prosecutors in the region launched wide judicial probes on all the incidents in Nusaybin and that legal actions were taken against 393 people. Thirty-five of them have been arrested, he said, informing that another 14 people were detained linked with the attack on the flag.
“The proceedings are still ongoing. They also try to identify the person who lowered the flag,” he stated.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan mentioned the incident in his address to the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) parliamentary group on Jan. 21 and strongly condemned it.
“We will certainly find those dirty hands that reached out to our flag, and we will definitely hold those traitors accountable. Anyone found to have been negligent or at fault as a result of the investigations will also face the necessary consequences,” he stated.
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli also denounced the incident “as the gravest provocation against the ongoing terror-free Türkiye project," in a written statement.
“It is clear that the DEM Party, which held its group meeting in Nusaybin, and its co-chairs who spoke at that meeting, are primarily responsible for the lowering of the Turkish flag,” he stated.
The DEM Party, in a statement late on Jan. 20, said it does not approve of the attack on the flag. “We disapprove of such behaviors that provoke a rightful protest rally,” spokeswoman Ayşegül Doğan stated.
