Tensions flare between Netherlands, Turkey

• Turkey threatened Monday to start letting refugees and migrants to pour across its borders into Europe and vowed to take the Netherlands to an international court as Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out at both the Dutch government and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, accusing her of “supporting terrorism.”

The diplomatic war between Holland and Turkey began over the weekend, when Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his cabinet blocked two Turkish ministers from attending a rally with Turkish citizens living in Holland in support of a “Yes” vote in a referendum to give vast new powers to Erdogan.

While leaders from the EU and NATO appealed for calm, Erdogan repeated his accusation that European governments were behaving like “Nazis.”

“Nazism, we can call this neo-Nazism. A new Nazism tendency,” he said. Erdogan said Germany was “supporting terrorists” because it had not acted on 4,500 files that Turkey sent it regarding terror suspects.

“Mrs. Merkel, why are you hiding terrorists in your country?” he said. He also said he planned to take the Netherlands to the European Court of Human Rights and threatened to impose economic sanctions.

Omer Celik, the Turkish EU affairs minister, said Ankara should reconsider the deal struck with the EU last year, which dramatically reduced the flow of people from the Middle East entering Europe from Turkey.

Celik said his country would not allow for the resumption of deadly water crossings in the Aegean Sea, but should consider opening its land borders to Greece and Bulgaria.

“In terms of land transits in Turkey, I think this situation should (be) re-evaluated,” he told the Anadolu news agency.

Turkey has threatened to tear up the agreement with the EU several times before without following through, arguing that Europe has failed to meet its commitment to allow Turkish citizens to travel in the Schengen area without visas.

Voters in The Netherlands choose a new government Wednesday in an election seen as a test of populism in Europe, and Geert Wilders, the right-wing nationalist party leader, and Rutte, a conservative, were both climbing in the polls Monday as voters appeared to embrace their hard line responses to the spiralling row with Turkey.

A poll published Monday night put the centre-right VVD party, led by Rutte, on course to win the election with 27 seats, a three-seat improvement since the battle with Turkey erupted on Saturday.

The same poll showed Wilders’s nationalist Party for Freedom in line to win 24 seats, up two seats since the weekend.

The two men faced off in a one-on-one televised debate Monday night, when Rutte struck a hard line on the confrontation with Turkey but also accused Wilders of “the wrong kind of populism.

“If the Turks escalate, then so will we,” he said, demanding that Turkey apologize for calling the Dutch “Nazi remnants.”

I’M MORE ANGRY ABOUT THE PEOPLE IN THE NETHERLANDS WHO WON’T INTEGRATE.

He also took aim at Wilders’s promise to ban the Koran and shut the Netherlands’ borders, saying both were “fake policies” that could not be achieved.

Wilders, whose campaign has centred around a promise to “de-Islamize the Netherlands,” said the country should be worried about the citizens of Turkish origin who protested in support of Turkey and against the Dutch government.

“Of course I’m angry about Erdogan, but I’m more angry about the people in the Netherlands who won’t integrate,” he said.

Rutte and other mainstream party leaders have all vowed not to allow Wilders into a coalition government, but the Dutch prime minister warned there was still “a real risk” that the nationalist could win most seats.

Merkel earlier offered her “complete support and solidarity” to the Dutch government and said Erdogan’s repeated Nazi comparisons were “completely unacceptable.”

The conflict between the two countries also took several strange and unexpected turns.

Supporters of Erdogan gathered in the Turkish city of Izmit over the weekend to squeeze oranges in protest against Holland, whose national colour is orange. The nationalist demonstrators held signs accusing Holland of fascism and then drank the squeezed orange juice.