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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13 2017, @03:37PM (1 child)
Cooked up by him? No. He's not that clever. Cooked up for his benefit? That would be a more accurate guess. He's trying to cement and expand his power and there are always those who will nail their flag to any mast that looks to be irrevocably floating toward power (and money, etc), so Erdogan of course has these fairweather friends who have made the calculation that supporting him is good for them; it will have taken multiple people to organise this charade and Erdogan is, as previously stated, not that bright. He thought he could use the conflict in Syria and its resultant refugee crisis to extract favours from the EU, something that has not been successful. It's also widely rumoured that he's been trading with Daesh and while there may not be any concrete evidence yet, if any is found he might well have flattened Turkey's EU ambitions irrevocably. Any ideas about cosying-up to Putin are also not likely to get very far as Turkey has little to offer Russia in return for their "help".
It is a mistake to think Erdogan has any thought beyond his own power.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13 2017, @11:23PM
EU --as a political entity-- has never been a player in the Syrian conflict; France, Germany and UK, on the other hand, were involved --though not at all coherently, which made the whole thing more complex.
What made the issue unresolvable was, IMO, the way USA acted: Initially through peaceful means, then --almost suddenly-- by military conflict, actively supporting every insurgent group there is.
This 'creative chaos' had interesting results: It pushed aside all Europen players (France, Germany and UK); and left TR in a very precarious position as to which god to worship given that the US would change its position about which insurgent group it is supporting every other month or so.
Add to it that the US (and EU) refused to create a no-fly zone in Syria where the refuees could be sheltered, ended up with millions of Syrians flocking to the adjacent counties --including TR.
The EU only realized how big the problem is when a small percent tried to seek asylum there; and blamed TR for not stopping them.
IOW, solution to Syrian refugees problem is by stopping them going to EU; that is it: As long as they don't disturb the EU, there's no more a problem.
And, asking for chipping in to share the financial burden is, somehow, 'to extract favours from the EU'.
Actually, there are other --more widely held-- rumors as to who created DAESH and who are still supporting it by not doing anything meaningful to stop it; but we won't go into it here.
Regarding the 'Turkey's EU ambitions', do you still believe there is such a thing any more especially after Brexit?
As far as the rest of the world is concerned, 'EU' is there in name only. It cannot act coherently --heck, it cannot act; it is paralysed for all practical purposes.
It does have financial power; but cannot use it because one or the other member state may not go along with the proposal (which more often than not is the case).
It does not have military power. It is entirely dependent on NATO which is financed and commanded by the US.
And, the US --it seems-- is not, any more, willing to pay for providing protection to the EU so that they use that cosy freedom to do any business it likes to do with China, helping elevate China to be a major threat/competitor to the US's interests elsewhere in the world.
So.. at a time when we're at the onset of a major tear-up of the good old Western bloc, do you really blame any non-EU country (especially those with no hope in hell to join too) to seek other alliances?
Heck, if it wasn't for NATO, I am sure Germany would be the first one to get in bed with RU.
This I have already agreed on.