Turkey’s president says ‘Nazism is alive in the West’

Erdogan seeks to expand his power

ISTANBUL Europe has been stripped of its mask and its real face is one of “fascism, racism and Islamophobia,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday.

Erdogan, speaking at a rally in support of constitutional changes that would tighten his grip on power, expressed anger at recent bans on speeches planned by Turkish ministers in Germany and the Netherlands.

The ministers have been pressing Erdogan’s case to Turkish expats in Europe ahead of a crucial April 16 referendum on the changes, and increasing pushback from European leaders has caused tensions to rise.

“The West has thrown off its mask in the past days,” Erdogan said Sunday. “What we have seen is a clear manifestation of Islamophobia.

“I have said that I had thought Nazism was over but that I was wrong. Nazism is alive in the West.”

On Saturday, the Dutch government canceled Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s flight permit to the Netherlands, then refused to allow a convoy carrying Turkish Family Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya to enter the Turkish Consulate in Rotterdam, instead ushering her to the German border.

“Democracy, fundamental rights, human rights and freedoms . ... All forgotten in Rotterdam tonight. Merely tyranny and oppression,” she tweeted.

Several dozen people, some waving red Turkish flags, gathered Sunday in a cold drizzle outside the Dutch Consulate here to denounce the treatment of Turks in the Netherlands.

Among the mostly male demonstrators were several women wearing hijabs.

They raised their hands in a four-fingered salute that has come to represent Islamic solidarity after Egypt’s brutal crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013.

“They want to divide us so we need to be united, hand in hand,” said Nimet Ceylán, one of several speakers. “We have to tell the (Turkish) state, what they did to you we have to do the same to them, we have to answer them with more than what did to us.” Bacon reported from McLean, Va.