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posted by on Sunday March 12 2017, @09:44AM   Printer-friendly
from the strange-timing dept.

A diplomatic spat between Turkey and the Netherlands is evolving.
Source of the controversy: Turkey's upcoming referendum on a constitutional change which would give more powers to the president. President Recep Erdoğan has been clamping down on opposition ever since the attempted coup, and securing his reign. Changing the constitution is another step in this process, which is seen by some as a large step towards eradicating democracy.

The Netherlands comes into play as the Turkish ruling party (AK) wishes to campaign for a "yes" vote in other countries, such as Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands. None of those countries is happy with an uninvited campaign visit by foreign politicians. The Turkish minister of foreign affairs was supposed to come to the Netherlands to campaign. The Dutch government strongly counselled against his visit, stating, amongst other reasons, that they do not want the Netherlands to host a rallying call for eradication of democracy. However, the rally could not be forbidden just because the contents was yuck to those in power - free speech and all that.

After this started hitting the news, the owners of the rooms that were booked for these rallies cancelled these bookings. Meanwhile, talks were ongoing between the two countries to resolve the situation. The Dutch government claims that the Turks started threatening with sanctions, and (my rephrasing) refused to be held hostage to how to govern their own country. In the midst of this evolving diplomatic spat, the Turkish minister of foreign affairs got onto a plane to the Netherlands.

As a side note: the Netherlands is having elections in 4 days (15th of March).

It gets better. The short short version:
- Saturday morning, the Dutch government cancelled the landing rights of the plane carrying the Turkish minister of foreign affairs.
- In response, Turkish president Erdogan called the Dutch nazis and fascists
- Turkish and Dutch communities were getting riled up.
This has created an atmosphere where any mayor can forbid a Turkish rally on the legitimate grounds that safety and security cannot be guaranteed. Yeah, that's not helping.

With the elections close, of course there's political posturing. Virtually all politicians think that this is a backwards step for Turkey, and that Turkish politicians should not be campaigning here.

But wait: it gets *even* better!
- Saturday evening, The Turkish minister of education snuck into the Netherlands by car.
- Her motorcade was stopped before arriving at the consulate, as the area around the Turkish consulate was now a no-go area thanks to the rising tensions
- There are calls on social media for Turks to travel to the consulate to protest.
- Turkey just announced that the Dutch ambassador to Turkey (who is not on his post currently) is not welcome back.
The ambassador not being welcome is literally breaking as I write this - I'm sure there will be more developments before this can be posted. See the live updates here.

My €0.02: Freedom of speech is important, even if you end up defending scoundrels (H.L. Mencken). However:
- every municipality has the right to forbid activities on its ground where it feels safety cannot be guaranteed.
- The Netherlands has elections in 4 days. Before today, the actions by the AK party were already decried as a gift to the anti-foreigners party. With current events evolving like this? I would expect quite a significant increase in seats for this party.

Update:
Turkey has just closed Dutch consulate and ambassy, and told the Dutch ambassador (out of country currently) he's not welcome back for now. The closing off is ostensibly for security purposes...

There is a massing of Turks near the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam. Police and various news media are there. Turkish media are getting good shots, others are broadcasting via periscope.

My updated two cents: foreign policy will become the hot topic for the Dutch elections; this is playing straight into the hands of the "Dutch Trump" Geert Wilders.
(and: why does the turkish government feel a need to force the issue now instead of after the Dutch elections? Are they so keen on playing the electoral role of the FBI?)

Read more at CNN and The Guardian.


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by janrinok on Sunday March 12 2017, @10:13AM (9 children)

    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Sunday March 12 2017, @10:13AM (#477993) Journal

    Many countries in Europe have significant Turkish migrant populations. Normally, it isn't usually acceptable for a foreign Government to conduct a political campaign in another country, particularly if they haven't been invited to do so. There are large numbers of Russians now settled in the US but I think that the US Government would object (quite rightly, IMO) if the Kremlin decided to hold political rallies on US soil. The Turkish Premier is trying to remove a large part of the democratic process from the Turkish constitution but he is not entirely confident that it will pass through the referendum. So, in an effort to garner as much support as possible, he decided that he wanted hold rallies in various European countries to try to encourage the Turkish migrants resident there to vote for him. Germany refused point blank to accept this. Now the Dutch are expressing the same views because the last thing that they want are the 2 factions that exist in the migrant population in Holland having violent protests against each other.

    Despatching senior Turkish politicians to foreign countries without having host government approval is not a right afforded under the usual diplomatic conventions. Erdogan knows this, but he is now trying to place the blame on the Dutch for not permitting him free rein in their own country. The Dutch have partly exacerbated the situation by not initially taking a more firm response when the rallies were first mooted. However, as the inter-migrant tensions are increasing, various levels of local government are taking their own decisions to prohibit the rallies in order to avoid the potential for violence.

    Erdogan realises that losing the support of the Turkish migrants might be enough to prevent him from getting his proposals accepted, and he is frustrated that he cannot run his planned campaigns in European. However, this is also showing the problems caused my large migrants communities that have not integrated fully with their host country. The Dutch are remarkably tolerant but recent events, including this spat, are providing some motivation for extreme right-wing views to become increasingly popular. A similar effect has been seen across much of Europe and the recent US elections have shown that even countries that are well-known for accepting and welcoming migrants have concerns at the effects that such migration might have on their core beliefs and values.

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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by driverless on Sunday March 12 2017, @11:04AM (3 children)

    by driverless (4770) on Sunday March 12 2017, @11:04AM (#478007)

    There are large numbers of Russians now settled in the US but I think that the US Government would object (quite rightly, IMO) if the Kremlin decided to hold political rallies on US soil.

    In any case they wouldn't need to, they already have a man in the White House.

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 12 2017, @04:08PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 12 2017, @04:08PM (#478075)

      The Russians in America are mostly Jews who were allowed out of the Soviet Union decades back.

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday March 12 2017, @04:57PM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday March 12 2017, @04:57PM (#478098) Journal
        Even if that assertion were true at some point in the past, it hasn't been true since 1989. A lot of non-Jewish Russians immigrated in the few years after the fall of the USSR.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 12 2017, @11:07PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 12 2017, @11:07PM (#478241)

        > The Russians in America are mostly Jews who were allowed out of the Soviet Union decades back.

        So what?

  • (Score: 2) by Urlax on Sunday March 12 2017, @11:29AM (1 child)

    by Urlax (3027) on Sunday March 12 2017, @11:29AM (#478010)

    there is a difference:

    turkish imigrants keep their nationality AND their children become Turkish citizens automatically.

    So in the Netherlands there are a lot of second/third generation immigrants, which have only visited Turkey during holiday. They are however full citizens of turkey, and (I assume) can cast their vote aswell.

    so like your analogy, it would be the Kremlin rallying on US soil, towards US citizens (which happen to have a double nationality due to Russian law, not by choice).

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13 2017, @04:05AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13 2017, @04:05AM (#478308)

      Did you mean Turkish emigrants?

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 12 2017, @05:31PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 12 2017, @05:31PM (#478111)

    tl;dr
    Europe is finished. The untermensch they let flooding in are burning down their happy little mono culture utopias. Terrorism, religious violence, racial violence, general crime will become the new norm. Thousands of years of culture annihilated. Europe is the new ghetto frontier along the lines of negro and hispanic infested urban slums on the USA. The utopias the white man built are burning. Good job everyone. This is why I wont have kids.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by jimshatt on Sunday March 12 2017, @09:40PM

      by jimshatt (978) on Sunday March 12 2017, @09:40PM (#478211) Journal

      This is why I wont have kids

      Some good news, after all...

    • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday March 13 2017, @03:49AM

      by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Monday March 13 2017, @03:49AM (#478303) Journal

      Put a username to your comments, Coward. If the truth is an absolute defense and you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide, riiiii~ght?

      --
      I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...