Turkey threatens to end migrant deal with European Union amid spat

The decision came after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier Wednesday he asked Prime Minister Binali Yildirim to tell the Istanbul mayor to end the pact with Rotterdam.

The row, which is threatening to engulf even more European countries, began when the Netherlands prevented two ministers from Turkey from addressing political rallies of Turkish migrants in Rotterdam.

Turkish leaders have accused their Dutch counterparts of breaching diplomatic protocol, Islamophobia, and Nazism after one government minister was ejected from the country and another barred from speaking at a rally in Rotterdam.

Ruttte’s spokesperson responded to reports in Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah, in which Turkish prime minister Binali Yildirim said that Rutte offered verbal apologies for taking Turkish diplomats into custody at the Turkish consulate on Saturday night.

Weber also spoke of trade, noting that Turkey depends on the European Union for nearly half of its exports.

After President Erdogan compared two prominent EU countries to the Third Reich, Jean-Claude Juncker reminded the European Parliament of what the Nazis were really about – describing how his family and home country Luxembourg had suffered during the war.

“Many Europeans here unfortunately think that Erdogan is invincible, but he is stoppable”, Hisyar Ozsoy, a Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) member of Turkey’s parliament, said after meeting with German lawmakers.

As Ankara-based columnist Asli Aydintasbas notes, the Dutch are heavy investors in Turkey’s businesses. Wilders is proof of the extent to which Islamophobia has taken hold in the Netherlands and across Europe.

Meanwhile, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office said the German leader discussed the tensions between European Union nations and Turkey with French President Francois Hollande in a phone call Thursday.

The Dutch election has attracted unprecedented attention as the first nationwide electoral exercise in a European nation following Brexit and the triumph of Donald Trump, with Wilders’ party until recently topping the opinion polls on the basis of a broadly anti-immigrant, specifically anti-Muslim and unequivocally anti-European Union (EU) agenda.

It “goes beyond a mere diplomatic spat and is symptomatic of a deeper problem”, wrote Ibrahim Kalin, senior adviser and spokesman for Erdogan, in a Turkish newspaper column published March 14.

German MEP Manfred Weber, who leads the centre-right group, said that full membership for Turkey was not realistic in “the foreseeable future”.

More than 1,000 people waving Turkish flags gathered on the street leading to the consulate, AFP correspondents saw, as tensions rocketed over rallies overseas to help Ankara gain backing for an April referendum vote. The EU has been wasting our time on the visa liberalisation issue.

Analysts have said Erdogan is using the crisis to show that his strong leadership is needed against a Europe which he presents as being innately hostile to Turkey.

Ministers from Turkey have been trying to drum up support for the government in the referendum from Turkey’s large diaspora in Europe. Such escalation is politically unwise, given the context in which Mr. Erdogan is running his campaign.

What has Turkey’s response been? And Turkey is a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member.

Turkish and German leaders haven’t taken their differences beyond verbal attacks.