Turkey calls in German envoy, condemns Kurdish rally in Netherlands

Istanbul (dpa) - Turkey‘s Foreign Ministry called in the German charge d‘affaires on Tuesday over comments by the head of Germany‘s intelligence agency regarding last year‘s coup attempt.Bruno Kahl told the Spiegel weekly he was not convinced that US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen was behind the abortive putsch in July, as Ankara has long maintained. A spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said this week the remarks were proof that Berlin "supports" the cleric.Separately, the Foreign Ministry condemned events in the Netherlands for the Kurdish new year, Newroz, at which there were symbols of the armed Kurdistan Workers‘ Party (PKK) and its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan, saying it showed a "double standard."Turkey and the European Union list the PKK as a terrorist group. Turkey has been angered that European cities have banned rallies by government ministers ahead of a referendum next month on expanding presidential powers.The Foreign Ministry also issued a strongly worded statement on Saturday over a similar Newroz rally in Frankfurt.Turkey‘s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met with US Attorney General Jeff Sessions in Washington on Tuesday to "underline our demand on the provisional arrest (and) extradition" of Gulen.However, the head of the US House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes, a Republican, told Fox News over the weekend that he has "not seen the evidence" that Gulen was involved in the coup while also expressing doubts over Washington‘s relationship with Ankara.