Erdogan blames Dutch for Srebrenica
ISTANBUL/Amsterdam: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday blamed the Netherlands for the Srebrenica massacre, amid an ongoing dispute over campaigning by Turkish politicians in European countries.
“We know the Netherlands and the Dutch from the Srebrenica massacre,” Erdogan said at an event in Ankara, blaming the Netherlands for the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Bosnians during the war
utch Prime Minister Mark Rutte called the accusations a “falsification” of history. The Srebrenica massacre in summer 1995 was carried out by Bosnian Serb forces led by General Ratko Mladic. The enclave was under the protection of Dutch UN peacekeepers at the time.
Erdogan’s comments come after Ankara rejected EU calls to de-escalate the bitter diplomatic row, saying the words out of Brussels have “no value for us.” The European Commission urged Turkey to “calm down the situation” on Monday, after the dispute hit a new low with a Dutch decision to bar a rally at the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam over the weekend. The Turkish government hit back, calling the EU’s position”incorrect” and “short-sighted.” The EU’s statement “fuels extremism, such as xenophobia and anti-Turkish sentiments, because the call to refrain from excessive statements and actions that risk further exacerbating the situation is made only to Turkey,” the Foreign Ministry said. After the cancellation of rallies in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly lashed out at EU leaders.
He called the Dutch government “Nazi remnants,” accused Germany of supporting “Nazi practices” and said German Chancellor Angela Merkel supports terrorists. The Turkish government is appealing to its citizens living abroad to vote “Yes” in an April 16 referendum that would expand the powers of Erdogan’s office. In Germany, around 1.4 million Turks are eligible to vote. The governments of Germany and France, along with Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, have urged Ankara to tone down its rhetoric.
“We have to keep a cool head,” Rutte said on Tuesday, a day after Turkey announced it was cutting off all highlevel contacts with the Netherlands and closing off its airspace to Dutch diplomats.