Dispute escalates after visit banned
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands — Turkey and the Netherlands sharply escalated a dispute between the two NATO allies on Saturday as the Dutch blocked a campaign visit by the Turkish foreign minister, prompting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to call them “fascists.”
From blocking Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to land in the Netherlands in the morning to Turkish officials closing off the Dutch Embassy in the evening, relations between the two sank ever deeper in the diplomatic standoff over the right of Turkish government officials to speak about their political plans at rallies in Europe.
The Dutch first withdrew the landing rights of the foreign minister because of objections to his intention to rally in Rotterdam for a Turkish referendum on constitutional reforms to expand presidential powers, which the Dutch see as a step backward from democracy.
And later, the Minister of Family and Social Policies Betul Sayan Kaya said she was kept out of the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam after traveling from Germany, insisting that the “Netherlands is violating all international laws, conventions and human rights by not letting me enter.”
Erdogan told a rally in Istanbul that the Dutch “do not know politics or international diplomacy.” He comparted them to “Nazi remnants, they are fascists.”
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte called it “a crazy remark, of course. But I understand they are angry but this is of course way out of line.”
Erdogan told a rally in Istanbul: “You can stop our foreign minister’s plane all you want, let’s see how your (diplomatic) planes will come to Turkey from now on.” Cavusoglu also referred to possible sanctions, and Rutte said consultations under such threats were impossible, forcing him to bar the visit.
The government said it withdrew the permission because of “risks to public order and security,” causing Cavusoglu to say: “so is the foreign minister of the Turkish republic a terrorist?”
He added that “we will give them the response they deserve.”