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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.
(Score: 5, Informative) by fritsd on Sunday March 12 2017, @12:03PM (2 children)
Here's an interesting point of view: Achmed Aboutaleb(*), the mayor of Rotterdam
(in Dutch)
http://www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/burgemeester-aboutaleb-we-zijn-schandalig-misleid~a4473368/ [volkskrant.nl]
It really sounds like the Turkish government is shit-stirring in the Netherlands on purpose:
WTF is the purpose of organise a demonstration in a foreign country, and sending several of your ministers to a foreign country there in the hope that one breaks through the police cordon to address Erdogan sympathisers??? It doesn't sound like a thing that a democratic government would normally do to another, befriended, democratic government, 4 days before the latter's national elections.
And then about Erdogan's comment calling the Dutch Nazis: the city centre of Rotterdam was completely bombed flat by the Nazis [wikipedia.org]. Heart ripped out (see sculpture by Zadkine [wikipedia.org]). Talk about insensitive!
In NL, the mayor of a city is politically responsible for demonstrations (as chief of police). The mayor can forbid demonstrations if he/she can argue a realistic danger of riots. There are loads of people from Turkish and from Kurdish descent in Rotterdam. Erdogan isn't as popular in NL as at home.
(*) Aboutaleb is from Moroccan descent, not Turkish descent, btw.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 12 2017, @01:34PM
It only takes one idiot to pick a fight. It will take two to turn it into a war. I guess this is where the nationalist trend is heading, if we get hot heads in charge of a few of the normally boring, stable countries.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Sunday March 12 2017, @03:19PM
WTF is the purpose of organise a demonstration in a foreign country, and sending several of your ministers to a foreign country there in the hope that one breaks through the police cordon to address Erdogan sympathisers???
Cheap propaganda. Erdogan's cronies aren't too dumb to figure out how to publicly play the role of victim.