Austria allows terror group PKK supporters to set up tent in central Vienna

A controversial tent was set up by PKK terrorist organization supporters in Austrian capital Vienna on Thursday, a step likely to increase the already growing tension between Turkey and the European Union.

The PKK supporters had received permission from the Austrian government to set up the tent, adorned with posters of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, and a flag for the terrorist organization, for 10 days in the Stefanplatz square, where they are openly making propaganda against Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in a speech in Istanbul on Monday, questioned the sincerity of the EU's support for Turkey's fight against the PKK and accused Europe of hypocrisy over criticism of Turkey's counterterrorism operations targeting the PKK.

"How can you talk about sincerity when the terrorist organization is allowed to erect a tent in Brussels outside the European Council building?" he said.

President Erdoğan has often criticized the West's approach to the PKK. In a speech in Istanbul on Wednesday, he questioned the sincerity of the EU's support for Turkey's fight against the PKK, after the flags of the PKK's Syrian affiliate Democratic Union Party (PYD) were hanged on the hall of European Parliament.