Turkish president set to attend anti-terror rally in France

ANKARA

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is scheduled to go to Strasbourg on Oct. 4 to attend a rally to protest recent attacks by militants.

The rally was announced by the president’s top secretary, Hasan Doğan, on his Twitter account. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu led a mass “anti-terrorism” rally attended by more than 100,000 people in Istanbul on Sept. 20.

Istanbul’s Yenikapı Square hosted the protest, which exuded the air of an election rally, with Erdoğan vowing in a barnstorming speech to pursue the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) “to the terrorists’ last redoubt.”

At the rally, held under the banner of “Millions of breaths: One voice against terror,” Prime Minister Davutoğlu said, “Those who want to divide this country, those who want to separate this country by wrecking it, may they be damned!”

Davutoğlu also called for votes for his Justice and Development Party (AKP).

A similar rally was staged by civic society organizations last week in Ankara.