Lebanon envoy summoned over 'provocative' banner hung by protesters on Turkish embassy gate

The meeting with Ambassador Ghassan Mouallem on Thursday came several hours after a small group of Lebanese protesters hung a banner on the door of the Turkish Embassy in Rabieh, Beirut.

Turkey’s Anadolu Agency said a group of eight to 10 people, linked to the Lebanese Free Patriotic Movement party hung the banner, which featured a Turkish flag and a skull "with an intimidating message".

A sentence written on the corner of the banner said, "You too, go home," using a phrase Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah said in a speech last month in a warning to Israelis near Lebanon’s southern border.

In Ankara, the foreign ministry denounced "these provocative acts" to the ambassador and called for quick action to protect Turkish interests in Lebanon, the news agency added. 

It also comes several days after Aoun triggered anger in Turkey by referring to the "state terrorism" of the former Ottoman Empire in a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of Lebanese independence.

"The state terror practiced by the Ottomans against the Lebanese, especially during World War One, caused hundreds of thousands of victims between famine, conscription and forced labour, without omitting the gallows through which they wanted to annihilate the spirit of emancipation and rebellion," Aoun said.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned Aoun’s speech, slamming it as "baseless and biased". The ministry denied the use of state terror by the Ottoman Empire in Lebanon.

"This extremely unfortunate and irresponsible statement by President Aoun made only a week after the visit of Mevlut Cavusoglu, foreign affairs minister, to Lebanon, does not comply with the friendly relations between the two countries," the ministry's statement said.

Agencies contributed to this report.

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