12,000 supporters came out to hear Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan speak in Strasbourg, France.
The crowd chanted, “Allahu Akbar!” during his speech where he lashed out at the European Union.
Erdogan also told the crowd the “hearts (of the Turkish people) are united in the same way” they were during the Ottoman Empire’s battles against Europe!
EU Observer reported, via Religion of Peace:
Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to “crush” Kurdish “terrorists” and harangued the EU over its handling of the migrant crisis at two rallies on Sunday (4 October).
The first event, in Strasbourg, France, saw about 12,000 French, German, Belgian, and Swiss-origin Turkish supporters hear him speak on counter-terrorism, the AFP news agency reports.He didn’t mention Islamic State.
But he vowed to “crush” the PKK, the Kurdish separatist movement.He also accused the EU of doing little to help Turkey share the “burden” of Syrian refugees.
His speech had an Islamist and anti-European tone.
It was preceded by a Muslim prayer. Erdogan described Turkish soldiers killed in recent PKK hostilities as “martyrs” and the crowd chanted “Allahu Akbar!” in return.
He said the “hearts [of the Turkish people] are today united the same way they were” when the Ottoman Empire fought European powers in 1915 and when Turkish Sultan Mehmed II conquered Constantinople.