The Turkish government has censured the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for airing a report on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), saying the news organization is “overtly” supporting “terrorism.”

The Turkish Foreign Ministry on Friday slammed the BBC’s coverage of the “written and visual propaganda of the PKK terrorist organization,” saying a report by the channel on August 20 was an attempt to whitewash the image of the militant group.

“Giving such coverage to an organization designated as terrorist by many countries including the EU member states is an overt support to terrorism,” a statement on the Foreign Ministry’s website said, adding that the broadcast “attempted to portray this illegal organization… as if it were an innocent organization merely engaged in a struggle with another terrorist organization.”

The controversial report by the BBC narrated the story of an Izadi woman in Iraq who escaped captivity by the Daesh Takfiri terrorists and joined the PKK. It showed images of PKK training camps where Kurds and Izadis were being prepared to fight Daesh.

Turkey has been engaged in major military operations in its southern border region over the past weeks. The Turkish military has been conducting offensives against alleged positions of Daesh terrorists in northern Syria as well as those of the PKK in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey.

The military operations began in the wake of the deadly July 20 bomb attack in the southern Turkish town of Suruc, an ethnically Kurdish town located close to the Kurdish town of Kobani on the other side of the border in Syria, where over 30 people died. The Turkish government blamed Daesh for the bombing. On July 22, the PKK claimed responsibility for the killing of two Turkish police officers, saying they were cooperating with Daesh.

The Friday statement by the Turkish Foreign Ministry said the BBC’s report facilitated PKK’s recruitment, adding that the militant group could become more encouraged through “such irresponsible and hypocritical approaches vis-a-vis terrorism.”

It said the PKK has killed more than 60 people and injured hundreds more in its new wave of attacks in southern Turkey.