The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Turkish head lashes out at Netherlands
Leader, amid spat, refers to the Bosnia mass killing in 1995.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday directed fresh verbal attacks at the Netherlands amid their growing diplomatic spat, holding the country responsible for Europe’s worst mass killing since World War II.
In a televised speech, Erdogan referred to the massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, eastern Bosnia, in 1995, and blamed a Dutch battalion of United Nations peacekeepers who failed to halt the slaughter by Bosnian Serb forces.
Erdogan said: “We know the Netherlands and the Dutch from the Srebrenica massacre. We know how rotten their character is from their massacre of 8,000 Bosnians there.”
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte condemned Erdogan’s comments, calling them a “disgusting distortion of history.”
“We will not lower ourselves to this level. It is totally unacceptable,” Rutte told Dutch broadcaster RTL Z.
It was the latest burst of anger from Erdogan over the Netherlands’ decision to prevent two Turkish ministers from holding campaign rallies there over the weekend. The two ministers had sought to campaign for an April 16 referendum on expanding Erdogan’s powers, courting the votes of the tens of thousands of eligible Turks who live in the Netherlands.
Erdogan previously called the Netherlands “Nazi remnants” and also accused it of “fascism.”
Turkey also criticized the European Union for siding with the Netherlands in the row. In a statement Tuesday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said the EU’s stance on Turkey was “shortsighted” and “carried no value” for Turkey, as well as lending “credence” to extremists.
The EU has called on Turkey to cease “excessive statements.”
The fight has raised concerns that cooperation between the EU and Turkey on a number of issues, such as dealing with the flow of migrants from war-torn Syria, may start to fray.
The tensions spilled over into the parliamentary election the Netherlands will be holding today. The Dutch-Turkish leader of a pro-migrant political party pulled out of an election eve debate in the Netherlands on Tuesday.
National broadcaster NOS said Tunahan Kuzu of the Denk (Think) party did not want to appear on the same stage as a right-wing populist.