Turkey's foreign minister on Thursday demanded the European Parliament take action against a Greek deputy who ripped up a paper Turkish flag, branding him a "racist" and a "clown."
Independent MEP Ioannis Lagos had told the parliament on Wednesday that Turkey was to blame for illegal migration flow into Greece. "We have streams of migrants coming to my country. Here we have the Turkish flag," he said, depicting a paper red flag featuring a white star and crescent. "What can we do with this flag? You can tear it up," Lagos said, before doing so and throwing it away.
Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu took to Twitter railing against the "racist" behaviour in the European Parliament. "Europe's spoiled and racist children should know their place. Europe must put an end to racism and animosity against Islam," he said. "Nobody should doubt that our flag will continue to wave proudly forever! Expecting European Parliament to take necessary measures against this clown."
Athens also denounced the MEP's "unacceptable" actions. "Greece condemns in the most categorical way any act that insults a national symbol, in this case the national symbol of Turkey," the Greek Foreign Ministry said. "The unacceptable actions of the representatives of neo-Nazism are outside Greek and European tradition," it added. "Neo-Nazis represent only themselves."
Lagos, formerly a Golden Dawn lawmaker in Greece, turned independent in July because he said he disagreed with party policy. He is among over a dozen senior Golden Dawn figures on trial for the 2013 murder of anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas by alleged party members. In the party's military-style hierarchy, Lagos was their local commander for the Piraeus area where Fyssas died, prosecutors found.
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