French public broadcaster France 24 will likely find itself in hot water for news coverage supporting the PKK terrorist group. Just a week after violent riots by supporters of the group, France 24 released a controversial report that included a map showing Turkish territories as parts of what they called "territory deserving independence" and avoided referring to the group as terrorists. The PKK is officially recognized as a terrorist group by the European Union, of which France is a member.

The broadcaster’s report entitled "The Kurds, a nation without a state: A century-long fight for rights and autonomy," controversially confines the PKK’s recognition as a terrorist group to Türkiye, where its campaign of violence has claimed thousands of lives since the 1980s. It claims Kurds are the largest ethnic group without a state and that they face pressure from Türkiye, Iraq, Syria and Iran. Along with the aforementioned map, the report is peppered with images of PKK supporters carrying posters of its jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan. It also says Türkiye rejects "Kurdish identity."

Commenting on France 24’s report, Talha Köse, Brussels coordinator and society and media director at Türkiye’s Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), said the media source sought to legitimize the PKK. Referring to recent riots, Köse told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Thursday that France allowed and even supported those "protests."

"The protests were indeed a show of force by the terrorist group, an act of intimidation. But they (the PKK) are not unacceptable as they were a threat to public safety. (For the PKK), the protests created a negative image. On the other hand, this made the terrorist group more visible to the public. It is safe to say that (the France 24 report) was a way to legitimize the PKK and portray it in a positive light. It tries to show that the PKK is ‘not that bad,'" he said.

"It is a state policy for France to support (the activities of PKK supporters). Left-wing groups endorse them but other parts of society are uncomfortable with them. I believe this report sought to alleviate this discomfort while at the same time served as a propaganda piece for the PKK," he said.

Köse also noted that imperialist countries exploited minorities and pursued a general approach of exerting pressure on Türkiye and the Turkish diaspora in Europe "through Kurds."

Oytun Orhan, coordinator for Levant Studies at the Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies (ORSAM), told AA that France has long been one of the European countries where the PKK easily found refuge for its activities and it also supported the PKK's Syrian wing, the YPG, in Syria. "But such groups, over time, can turn into a threat for countries supporting them. This is what happened recently in France," he said.

Orhan said France had a serious responsibility for issues still plaguing the region decades after World War I. The France 24 report says that Kurds sought to establish their homeland since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. "Imperialist countries’ plans during and after the war to ‘share’ the region and artificial borders they created are the basis of many issues. The Ottoman Empire allowed the coexistence of different communities in peace but after its collapse, instability prevailed in the region," he said.

The killing of three people on Dec. 23, 2022, in Paris by a lone gunman in an attack on a Kurdish cultural center paved way for riots by PKK supporters. Gathering in the area in the aftermath to "protest" the attack, they clashed with police and injured more than 20 intervening police officers. The riots drew the ire of Türkiye with Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu telling his French counterpart Catherine Colonna in post-riot talks that, "France has seen the true face of terrorist organizations with this incident."

"The propaganda launched by the PKK and the YPG against Türkiye by using the attack as an excuse, as well as French politicians posing with pictures of terrorist leaders and banners are unacceptable," the minister said, urging France to not allow terrorist propaganda to mushroom without accountability in the country.

Türkiye has been alarmed about the recent incidents and asked Western countries about curbing public support for the PKK, which feeds itself through human trafficking, drugs and organized crime across the bloc. Also, the Foreign Ministry summoned the French envoy to Ankara to express Türkiye’s concerns about the propaganda PKK sympathizers have been spreading, as well as the issue of support for the group from some French politicians.