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Turkey summons Dutch envoy over riot police tactics in Rotterdam EU tells Turkey to avoid escalating diplomatic row over political rallies
(about 4 hours later)
Turkey has summoned the Dutch envoy in Ankara to complain about the actions of Rotterdam police against protesters after a Turkish minister was blocked from visiting her country’s consulate in the city. A diplomatic crisis between Turkey and several EU member states has deepened as the bloc warned Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to avoid inflammatory language and Ankara said it could impose sanctions on the Netherlands.
Dutch police used dogs and water cannon on Sunday to disperse hundreds of protesters waving Turkish flags. Turkey’s foreign ministry said the intervention was disproportionate and called for legal action against police misconduct. In a fast-escalating row over Turkish ministers being blocked from holding rallies abroad before a referendum next month on plans to expand Erdoğan’s powers, the latest developments followed the Turkish president twice this weekend accusing the Dutch government of acting like Nazis.
Tensions between the countries have escalated in a row over Ankara’s political campaigning abroad. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is looking to the large number of Turks living in Europe to help secure victory next month in a referendum that would give his office increased powers. Apparently referring to Erdoğan’s comments, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, and enlargement commissioner, Johannes Hahn, on Monday demanded Turkey “refrain from excessive statements and actions”.
The foreign ministry said it had handed the Dutch embassy’s chargé d’affaires, Daan Feddo Huisinga, two formal notes. The first protested against practices it said were contrary to international conventions, diplomatic courtesy, and diplomatic immunities and requested a written apology from the Dutch authorities. It was “essential to avoid further escalation and find ways to calm down the situation,” the two said in a joint statement. Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary general, also urged all concerned to “show mutual respect and be calm”.
The second note protested against the treatment of Turkish citizens who had gathered outside the consulate in Rotterdam, saying “disproportionate force” had been used against “people using their right to peaceful gatherings”. Ankara’s minister for EU affairs, Ömer Çelik, said sanctions against the Netherlands were likely. “We will surely have sanctions against the latest actions by the Netherlands. We will answer them with these,” he said.
Erdoğan provoked outrage on Saturday when he told a rally in Istanbul that the Dutch government were “Nazi remnants” after Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya, Turkey’s minister for families, was escorted back to Germany by police. Dutch police used dogs and water cannon on Sunday to disperse demonstrations after Turkey’s family minister, Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya, was escorted out of the country and the foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, denied permission to land.
“If you can sacrifice Turkish-Dutch relations for an election on Wednesday, you will pay the price,” Erdoğan said. “I thought Nazism was over, but I was wrong. In fact, Nazism is alive in the west.” The ministers were due to address a rally of Dutch Turks, many of whom are able to vote in the 16 April referendum.
At the weekend the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, who faces a stiff political test in parliamentary elections on Wednesday, said Turkey had crossed a diplomatic line. Daan Feddo Huisinga, the Dutch chargé d’affaires in Ankara, was called to the foreign ministry on Monday to receive formal protest notes at what it called the “disproportionate, inhumane and humiliating” treatment of the protesters.
“This has never happened before – a country saying someone is not welcome and then them coming regardless,” he said, referring to Kaya’s decision to travel to Rotterdam by car after her colleague, the foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, was banned from flying in to the Netherlands. The ministry also said the reception given to the two ministers was contrary to international conventions, diplomatic courtesy and diplomatic immunities, and demanded a written apology from the Dutch authorities.
On Sunday Çavuşoğlu called the Netherlands the “capital of fascism” while addressing a rally in Metz, France. The Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Denmark and Switzerland have all cited security and other concerns for their reluctance to allow Turkish officials to campaign in their countries for the referendum, infuriating Ankara.
The Turkish ministers had wanted to address a gathering of Dutch Turks, many of whom have dual nationality, before next month’s referendum on a new law to increase Erdoğan’s presidential powers. The Netherlands opposed the visit because it was too close to the parliamentary election, but the lingering row now threatens to overshadow the rest of the domestic campaign. Erdoğan last week accused Germany of “Nazi practices” after Çavuşoğlu was banned from speaking at a rally in Hamburg, drawing a rare rebuke from the chancellor, Angela Merkel.
The far-right leader Geert Wilders, whose Freedom party is projected to win 20-25 seats and could become the main opposition group in the Netherlands, tweeted: “The Netherlands can see that these people are Turks, not Dutch. They have Dutch passports, but they don’t belong here.” The Turkish president twice made the same claim of the Netherlands on Saturday, describing the Dutch government as “Nazi remnants” and telling a rally in Istanbul: “I thought nazism was over, but I was wrong. In fact, nazism is alive in the west.”
The dispute between the Dutch and Turkish governments follows tensions between Berlin and Ankara last week over similar visits mooted by Turkish ministers to rally Germany-based Turks. Çavuşoğlu was banned from speaking in Hamburg, prompting Erdoğan to compare Germany’s government with that of the Nazi era. Erdogan has repeatedly indicated he may personally try to address rallies in EU countries, a move that could inflame the situation further, and the issue risks spiralling into a crisis with the EU as a whole.
On Sunday the row spread further as the prime minister of another Nato ally, Lars Løkke Rasmussen of Denmark, postponed a visit scheduled for next weekend by the Turkish prime minister, Binali Yıldırım. The situation risks further dimming Ankara’s prospects of joining the bloc, a process that has been under way for more than half a century. “The formal end of accession negotiations with Turkey is now inevitable,” the German commentator Daniel Brössler wrote in the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
“With the current Turkish attacks on Holland the meeting can not be seen separated from that. I have therefore proposed to my Turkish colleague that the meeting will be postponed,” Rasmussen said. Faced with European dismay, Ankara has doubled down. The Turkish justice minister, Bekir Bozdağ, warned on Monday that the country would “not allow anyone to play with the honour of the Turkish nation and Turkish state”.
The Dutch government has also updated its travel advice for Turkey, warning about the heightened diplomatic tensions. “Be alert and avoid gatherings and busy places throughout Turkey,” it says. A deputy prime minister, Nurettin Canikli, described Europe as a “very sick man”, adding: “From now on, we are going to be watching the collapse of Europe.”
Analysts said the Turkish president was using the crisis to show voters his strong leadership was needed against a Europe he routinely presents as hostile.
Erdoğan is “looking for ‘imagined’ foreign enemies to boost his nationalist base in the run-up to the referendum,” said Soner Cagaptay, the director of the Turkish Research Programme at the Washington Institute.
Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, who had opposed the visit by Turkish ministers because of fears it might disrupt this week’s parliamentary elections, said Erdoğan’s Nazi jibe was “totally unacceptable” and demanded an apology.
Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, on Monday expressed Germany’s solidarity, saying the Dutch had “suffered badly under the Nazi regime, and it is outrageous to want to accuse them of being close to such ideology”.
The German interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, said there were legal avenues to stop Turkish politicians from campaigning for the referendum in Europe. “A Turkish campaign has no business being here in Germany,” he said.
Denmark has also postponed a planned visit next weekend by the Turkish prime minister, Binali Yıldırım, saying the meeting could not be seen as “separate from the current Turkish attacks on Holland”.
But European states are not entirely united in their stance: Çavuşoğlu himself called off a planned visit to Switzerland, despite the Swiss federal government saying there was “nothing to justify” cancelling it.
The Swiss foreign minister, Didier Burkhalter, said the fundamental right to freedom of expression should be respected to show countries including Turkey that they too must guarantee it.
The French government also allowed Çavuşoğlu to address a rally in Metz on Sunday. Jean-Marc Ayrault, the foreign minister, said that in the absence of a serious threat to public order, there was no reason to ban the meeting.
But several opposition politicians rejected his argument. François Fillon, the rightwing candidate for president, accused the government of mismanaging the situation and “flagrantly breaking European solidarity” on the issue.
The Dutch government updated its travel advice for Turkey on Monday, warning about the heightened diplomatic tensions. “Stay alert across the whole of Turkey and avoid gatherings and crowded places,” it said.