Turkish PM Erdoğan: All responsible for removal of flag will pay

Those responsible for the removal of a Turkish flag from a mast inside an Air Force base in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır will pay for it, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, accusing both the perpetrators and local military officials. Five people involved in the incident were detained on June 10 as part of the investigation launched by the local police forces.

“A terrorist jumps over the barbed wire and enters the military post, and realizes this cowardly act,” said Erdoğan during his weekly address to his party’s parliamentary group in Ankara.

“The necessary inspection and probe into the issue will be made, and those who acted in negligence will be called to account for it. Two of them have already been removed and sent to other places. Some have been detained.  Administrative inquiries will be launched into public officials,” he said.

A masked demonstrator was photographed climbing a flagpole in the 2nd Air Force Command in Lice on June 8, after jumping over the surrounding walls following protests after the burial of a demonstrator killed by Turkish soldiers during an intervention in a road block. Since the photo spread, the rhetoric over the incident has toughened and the military has come under fire for not intervening to prevent the protester.  

“You should catch those who take down the flag and do what is necessary. Otherwise, you are also responsible,” he said in reference to the officials

“Should I come down from Ankara to catch the one who takes down the flag? The resolution process here is not [an excuse]. You must do what’s necessary,” Erdoğan added, as he described the move an attempt to “stir up trouble across the...