President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed Germany on Thursday over the country's treatment of Turks, as well as the harboring of PKK terrorists.

Axar.az reports that, speaking at a rally in the northwestern Turkish province of Sakarya, Erdoğan said that Turkey handed over 4,500 files of suspected PKK terrorists living in Germany, but nothing has been done from the German side.

Referring to the arrestation of journalist Deniz Yücel in February, Erdoğan lashed out at Germany, ''They have hidden a spying terrorist in their diplomatic residence. Then, the German chancellor even asked me to free him. In Turkey, the judicial process is free and does not depend on my will. And they must understand that they cannot take them out from Turkish justice.''

''He appeared before court, and he has been arrested. They say that he is German citizen. Who cares? If you are spying illegally, you simply pay for it.''

Over the past weeks, Turkey-Germany relations entered a strained period as Germany barred Turkish ministers from meeting with Turkish citizens in Germany, who are eligible to vote in Turkish elections, within the framework of Turkey' constitutional reform referendum scheduled on April 16.

'Rutte won the election, but lost Turkey'

Erdoğan criticized Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, after the scandalous treatment of Turkish Family and Social Affairs Minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya last Saturday in the Netherlands.

''Rutte, you might have won the elections in your country, but you have lost Turkey's friendship,'' Erdoğan noted, referring to the electoral victory of Rutte's VVD party in Dutch election hold on Wednesday.

''You have lost in reality, Rutte. And then he says that he can have a dinner with our Prime Minister Yıldırım, there is no such prime minister to have a dinner with you after what happened,'' Erdoğan added, referring to the deportation of Sayan Kaya after her convoy was prevented from reaching Turkey's Rotterdam consulate.

''In the end of the day, we know that it's Germany who led this wave of bans, we will later talk this issue with Germans.''