A group of supporters of the PKK terrorist group attacked a member of the public during a demonstration in London on Saturday.
The attack targeted an Azerbaijani man who was walking down the street near the tourist hub Picadilly Circus.
The assailants, a group of men and women, punched the man on the chin and continued to physically assault him before the police took him into a shop for protection.
The man told Anadolu Agency (AA) that he is originally from Azerbaijan but works in London.
He said he "saw the anti-Turkish meeting and I could not take it," explaining that the group members "were making the Victory sign."
He said he made the gray wolf sign – a sign symbolizing patriotism commonly used in Turkic countries such as Turkey and Azerbaijan.
"Men and women, they attacked me. They punched my chin. Then police protected me in a shop," he said.
He added that the police stopped the PKK supporters' further attacks but he did not know if anyone was arrested over the incident.
The group of PKK supporters gathered in front of BBC headquarters earlier on Saturday and marched to Downing Street via central London.
They carried symbols and banners of the PKK/YPG terrorist group and its Iranian branch the PJAK as well as photos of the group's jailed ringleader, Abdullah Öcalan.
British police were observed to have walked alongside the marchers, a common practice in PKK demonstrations.
PKK demonstrations are not barred by British security forces despite it being a banned terrorist organization in the United Kingdom.
London police arrested such individuals in recent protests.
The U.K. listed the PKK and various front groups as illegal organizations in March 2001. According to the Home Office, this means all their activities are banned, as is membership of or inviting support for such groups.
Despite its status as a designated international terrorist organization, the PKK has enjoyed relative freedom in European cities and has a particularly strong presence in Germany while it continues using the European Union's territory for propaganda, recruitment, fundraising and logistical support activities.
Turkey has long criticized European authorities for tolerating PKK activities and has pressured them to take stricter measures against the group's propaganda, recruitment and fundraising activities.
"The PKK is organizing various fundraising campaigns in Germany and then using this money to finance terror attacks in Turkey," Thomas Haldenwang, head of the German domestic intelligence agency BfV, told a news conference in Berlin.
He said the PKK is also using various associations in Germany to recruit young people as foreign fighters, who are then sent to Turkey, Syria or Iraq.
"The PKK remains an international terror organization, it continues violent attacks, killings in the region," he stressed.
