Erdogan says Netherlands will pay the price for rally dispute
Turkish president plans to campaign throughout EU
ISTANBUL // Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday warned the Netherlands that it would pay a price for preventing top ministers holding rallies ahead of a referendum on expanding his powers, as a crisis escalated with Ankara’s key European Union partners. Mr Erdogan renewed accusations that the Netherlands – which was occupied by the Germans in the Second World War – was behaving like the Nazis in its treatment of Turkish ministers.
Analysts are predicting a tight outcome to the April 16 referendum and Turkish ministers have planned major rallies in EU cities to win votes from the millions of Turks who live abroad.
But Turkish family minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya was expelled from the Netherlands after being prevented from addressing a rally in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam. The Hague, meanwhile, refused to allow Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s plane to land ahead of a planned rally.
“Hey Holland! If you are sacrificing Turkish-Dutch relations for the sake of the elections on Wednesday, you will pay a price,” an angry Mr Erdogan said at a ceremony in Istanbul, referring to the general election taking place in the Netherlands.
“They will learn what diplomacy is,” he said, adding that what happened “cannot remain unanswered”.
Faced with an upsurge in support for the ultra-right, European governments have come under pressure to take a hard line on Mr Erdogan, who is accused by critics of authoritarianism.
The Turkish president reaffirmed his accusations from Saturday that the Dutch behaviour over the Turkish visits was “Nazism, fascism”.
Police clashed with Erdogan supporters in the Netherlands overnight from Saturday to yesterday.
In Istanbul yesterday, a man climbed on to the roof of the Dutch consulate and replaced the Dutch flag with a Turkish flag.
The flag was later taken down and Turkish officials insisted the consulate had not been entered from the outside.
“Consular officials” had hoisted the flag on their own initiative, the officials said. The consulate declined to comment. A Dutch foreign ministry spokeswoman said the situation “remains unclear” and that the Netherlands had “protested to the Turkish authorities” over the incident. The row between Turkey and the Netherlands came after Ankara and Germany sparred over the cancellation of referendum campaign events there.
“The West has clearly shown its true face in the last couple of days,” Mr Erdogan said. “What we have seen is a clear manifestation of Islamophobia.”
The president indicated that he planned to travel to Europe for rallies, a move that could potentially create an even greater row. “I can go to any country I want if I have a diplomatic passport,” he said.
‘ If you are sacrificing TurkishDutch relations for the sake of the elections, you will pay a price Recep Tayyip Erdogan Turkish president