Turkish foreign minister vows Dutch ban won’t go unanswered

Dutch officials said the government had drawn “a line in the sand” when it refused Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s plane permission to land near Rotterdam.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reacted angrily accusing the Dutch – who were once under Nazi occupation – of being “the vestiges of Nazis”. Erdogan said in Monday’s interview with the A Haber and ATV channels.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte called Erdogan’s comments “unacceptable”, and his Nazi comment “a insane remark”. “Dear Merkel, you are supporting terrorists!”

The Dutch were equally angry and Prime Minister Mark Rutte called Mr Erdogan’s Nazi comment “a insane remark”, while Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb said the Turkish consul general was guilty of a “scandalous deception” after he allegedly denied that the minister was coming despite government warnings to stay away.

The argument is over the Netherlands’ refusal to allow Turkish officials to campaign there for support among Turks who are eligible to vote in an April 16th referendum that would greatly expand the powers of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Pushed by Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, these sweeping constitutional changes would grant new powers to Turkey’s President and transform the way the country is governed.

In a quickly escalating row, Turkey then sent its family affairs minister, Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya, who was in Germany at the time, by auto to Rotterdam.

However, he noted that such events required “close cooperation between the Turkish authorities and their foreign counterparts”, and should be held “in accordance with national legislation and the European Convention on Human Rights”.

Wilders – who has longstanding connections with right-wing United States conservatives and attended the Republican convention in Cleveland a year ago – recently said Trump “has done more to beat the mass immigration in two weeks’ time [in office] than the whole of European governments in their whole existence”.

“He lied to us and didn’t tell the truth”, the mayor said.

Turkey responded with a statement that requested to the charge d’affaires that “the Dutch ambassador who is on leave overseas [should] not return for a while”.

Erdogan’s ministers are keen to tap into the diaspora in Germany, which includes 1.4 million people eligible to vote in Turkey – the fourth-largest electoral base after Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.

The Turkish leader had previously said the German consulate in Istanbul was “aiding and abetting” terrorism, when it harbored the German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel for a month, before handing him over to the authorities.

Germany is the source of around 15 percent of Turkey’s tourists and trade visitors at last week’s ITB travel fair in Germany said they had been slashing prices to make up for a drop in bookings.

He said the government was acting more anti-immigrants and anti-Muslims than Dutch candidate Geert Wilders. The notes centered around the treatment of Turkish diplomats and the Rotterdam incident. The Dutch election is scheduled for this Wednesday.

Turkish ministers have been barred from making campaign speeches in some countries and riot police clashed with Turkish pro-government demonstrators in the Netherlands. “A Turkish campaign has no business being here in Germany”, de Maiziere told local media.

Bayrakli told CNN: “I think it is a quite a serious diplomatic scandal because Turkey and Holland are allies in North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the EU”. It’s a right-wing populist message.

“The West has clearly shown its true face in the last couple of days”, Mr Erdogan said.