Turkey hits Netherlands with a series of sanctions
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey announced a series of political sanctions against the Netherlands on Monday over its refusal to allow two Turkish ministers to campaign there, including halting high-level political discussions between the two countries and closing Turkish air space to Dutch diplomats.
Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said the sanctions would apply until the Netherlands takes steps “to redress” the actions that Ankara sees as a grave insult.
“There is a crisis and a very deep one. We didn’t create this crisis or bring it to this stage,” Kurtulmus said. “Those who did have to take steps to redress the situation.”
Other sanctions bar the Dutch ambassador entry back into Turkey and advise parliament to withdraw from a Dutch-Turkish friendship group.
The announcement came hours after Turkey’s foreign ministry formally protested the treatment of a Turkish minister who was prevented from entering a consulate in the Netherlands and escorted out of the country after trying to attend a political rally for Turks eligible to vote in an April 16 referendum in Turkey.
The ministry also objected to what it called a “disproportionate” use of force against demonstrators at a protest afterward.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan later said that the two cabinet ministers would apply to the European human rights court over their treatment in the Netherlands.
Turkey had a similar dispute with Germany last week, but the fight with the Netherlands comes as that country prepares for its own election Wednesday
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his main rival at national elections, the far-fight populist Geert Wilders, clashed Monday in their only nationally televised face-to-face debate ahead of Wednesday’s vote, with Wilders calling Rutte untrustworthy and Rutte responding by saying that a Wilders government would plunge the Netherlands into chaos. The Dutch election is being seen as a key indicator of the future of populism in Europe. pitting Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s right-wing PVV Party against far-right, anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders’ party.
Rutte, who did not want to be seen backing down to Turkish threats, enraged Ankara by refusing to let Turkey’s foreign minister land in the Netherlands on Saturday and denying the country’s family and social policies minister access to the Turkish Consulate in downtown Rotterdam.
Erdogan vowed to retaliate against the Netherlands after claiming that “Nazism is alive in the West.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking at a news conference in Munich on Monday, pledged her “full support and solidarity” to the Dutch, saying the Nazi gibes were “completely unacceptable.”
Merkel had been scheduled to arrive in Washington late Monday for a meeting with President Donald Trump but had to postpone her trip because of an East Coast storm. The White House said the meeting was rescheduled for Friday.
Erdogan responded angrily to Merkel’s support for the Netherlands. “Shame on you!” he exclaimed during an interview with A Haber television on Monday.
He renewed accusations that Germany supported “terrorists” battling Turkey and that it backed the ‘no’ campaign in the Turkish referendum, arguing that Berlin did not want to see a strong Turkey emerge.
“Some of the European Union countries — let’s not put all of them in the same sack — unfortunately cannot stomach Turkey’s rise,” Erdogan said. “Sadly, Germany tops the list. Germany supports terror in a cruel way.”