Turkey yesterday told the Netherlands that it would retaliate in the “harshest ways” after Turkish ministers were barred from speaking in Rotterdam in a row over Ankara’s political campaigning among Turkish emigres.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had branded its fellow NATO member a “Nazi remnant” and the dispute escalated into a diplomatic incident on Saturday evening, when Turkish Minister of Family and Social Policies Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya was prevented by police from entering the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam.
Hundreds of protesters waving Turkish flags gathered outside, demanding to see the minister.
Photo: AP
Dutch police used dogs and water cannon early yesterday to disperse the crowd, which threw bottles and stones.
Several demonstrators were beaten by police with batons, a Reuters witness said.
They carried out charges on horseback, while officers advanced on foot with shields and armored vans.
Less than one day after Dutch authorities prevented Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu from flying to Rotterdam, Kaya said on Twitter she was being escorted back to Germany.
“The world must take a stance in the name of democracy against this fascist act! This behaviour against a female minister can never be accepted,” she said.
The Rotterdam mayor confirmed she was being escorted by police to the German border.
Kaya later boarded a private aircraft from the German town of Cologne to return to Istanbul, Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper reported yesterday.
The Dutch government — which stands to lose heavily to the anti-immigration party of Geert Wilders in elections next week — said it considered the visits undesirable and “the Netherlands could not cooperate in the public political campaigning of Turkish ministers in the Netherlands.”
The government said it saw the potential to import divisions into its own Turkish minority, which has both pro and anti-Erdogan camps.
Dutch politicians across the spectrum said they supported Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s decision to ban the visits.
In a statement issued early yesterday, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Ankara had told Dutch authorities it would retaliate in the “harshest ways” and “respond in kind to this unacceptable behavior.”
Turkey’s foreign ministry said it did not want the Dutch ambassador to Ankara to return from leave “for some time.”
Turkish authorities sealed off the Dutch embassy in Ankara and consulate in Istanbul in apparent retaliation and hundreds gathered there for protests at the Dutch action.
Erdogan is looking to the large number of emigre Turks living in Europe, especially in Germany and the Netherlands, to help clinch victory next month in a referendum that would give the presidency sweeping new powers.
The Dutch government had banned Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu from attending a rally on Saturday in Rotterdam, but he said he would fly there anyway, saying Europe must be rid of its “boss-like attitude.”
Cavusoglu, who was barred from a similar meeting in Hamburg last week but spoke instead from the Turkish consulate, accused the Dutch of treating the many Turkish citizens in the country like hostages, cutting them off from Ankara.
“If my going will increase tensions, let it be ... I am a foreign minister and I can go wherever I want,” he added hours before his planned flight to Rotterdam was banned.
Wilders on Saturday said on Twitter: “To all Turks in the Netherlands who agree with Erdogan: Go to Turkey and NEVER come back!!”
Rutte said: “This morning on TV [Cavusoglur] made clear he was threatening the Netherlands with sanctions and we can never negotiate with the Turks under such threats. So we decided ... in a conference call it was better for him not to come.”
Addressing a rally of supporters, Erdogan retaliated against the decision to prevent the Turkish foreign minister from visiting Rotterdam.
“Listen Netherlands, you’ll jump once, you’ll jump twice, but my people will thwart your game,” he said. “You can cancel our foreign minister’s flight as much as you want, but let’s see how your flights will come to Turkey now.”
“They don’t know diplomacy or politics. They are Nazi remnants. They are fascists,” he said.
Rutte called Erdogan’s reference to Nazis and Fascists “a crazy remark.”
“I understand they’re angry but this is of course way out of line,” he said.
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