Europe-Turkey rift widens
Netherlands insists that Turkey’s threats have made impossible all possible options for a reasonable solution that would respect national rules on public demonstrations.
In a personal note posted on his Facebook account, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that Turkish émigrés residing in Netherlands would be able to vote in the referendum. However, gatherings in the country have the risk to contribute to tensions in the society and to harm public order and safety.
“This is against our friendship. Please get your nose out of our internal affairs,” said Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.
The Turkish government views such efforts by Netherlands as a systematic plan of a “deep state” to pressure Turkish expats to vote against constitutional changes that will grant wide-ranging powers to the Turkish president and undermine separation of powers if it passes.
In an attempt to bypass the ban, Fatma Betul Kaya, Turkey’s family and social policies minister, announced that she will go to Rotterdam by road to meet Turkish expats.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is committed to preventing political tensions in Turkey spreading onto German soil. Germany also got its share from Erdogan’s anger, who compared it last week with Nazi Germany.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the main opposition party CHP’s leader, gave his unconditional support to Turkish government, saying that Turkey has a right to use sanctions.
“A foreign minister who represents Turkey can go and speak everywhere he wants. The Dutch decision is unacceptable,” Kilicdaroglu said on his Twitter account.
Out of 5 million Turkish émigrés in Europe, around 2.8 million live in Germany and half a million reside in the Netherlands. Turkish European residents will cast their votes at consulates between March 27 and April 9.
Any deepening of the row between Ankara and some major European capitals will also have repercussions over tourism and economic ties between the countries. Turkey hosts about 1 million Dutch and about 6 million German tourists. Germany is Turkey’s biggest trade partner. Turkey and Germany also cooperate on the Syrian refugee crisis.
According to a poll conducted by Turkey’s MetroPoll in November 2016, 64.5 percent of Turks consider Germany a foe of Turkey.
Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, Ankara office director of German Marshall Fund of the US, said that the decisions by the German and Dutch authorities to prevent political meetings by Turkish government officials is an effort to appease the populist voters ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Unluhisarcikli argued that appeasement is not a wise policy against populism as populist parties can always raise the bar.
Unluhisarcikli warned that appeasement of anti-Turkish populism in Europe will boost populism in Turkey.
“Populism breeds populism,” he added.