President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday that the Netherlands was acting like a “banana republic” and should face sanctions for barring Turkish ministers from speaking in Rotterdam, fuelling a row over Ankara’s political campaigning abroad.
Erdogan is looking to the large number of Turks living in Europe, especially in Germany and the Netherlands, to help secure victory next month in a referendum that would give the presidency sweeping new powers.
In a speech in France, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu described the Netherlands as the “capital of fascism” as it joined other European countries in stopping Turkish politicians holding rallies, due to fears that tensions in Turkey might spill over into their expatriate communities.
The Dutch government barred Cavusoglu from flying to Rotterdam on Saturday and later stopped Family Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya from entering the Turkish consulate there, before escorting her out of the country to Germany.
Dutch police used dogs and water cannon yesterday to disperse hundreds of protesters waving Turkish flags outside the consulate in Rotterdam.
Some threw bottles and stones and several demonstrators were beaten by police with batons, a Reuters witness said.
Mounted police officers charged the crowd.
The Dutch government – set to lose about half its seats in elections this week, according to polls, as the anti-Islam party of Geert Wilders makes strong gains – said the visits were undesirable and it would not co-operate in their campaigning.
“I call on all international organisations in Europe and elsewhere to impose sanctions on the Netherlands,” Erdogan said, after his prime minister earlier said Turkey would retaliate in the “harshest ways”, without specifying how.
“Has Europe said anything? No. Why? Because they don’t bite each other. The Netherlands are acting like a banana republic,” Erdogan said in a speech in Kocaeli province, near Istanbul.
“The West has clearly shown its true face in the last couple of days,” he said. “What we have seen is a clear manifestation of Islamophobia.”
The president indicated that he himself plans to travel to Europe for rallies, a move that could potentially create an even greater row.
Erdogan said: “I can go to any country I want if I have a diplomatic passport.”
A day earlier, Erdogan described the Netherlands as “Nazi remnants” and returned to the theme yesterday by saying “Nazism is still widespread in the West” in what Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said were inflammatory remarks.
“We ended up in a totally unprecedented situation in which a Nato ally ... with whom we have historic ties, strong trade relations, is acting in a totally unacceptable, irresponsible manner,” Rutte told reporters.
Rather than the Netherlands apologising for refusing the Turkish ministers entry, Turkey’s president should apologise for comparing the Netherlands to fascists and Nazis, he said.
The row risked spreading yesterday as Denmark’s Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen proposed postponing a planned visit by Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim this month due to the dispute.
The French foreign ministry meanwhile urged calm and said there had been no reason to prohibit a meeting in France between Cavusoglu and a local Turkish association.
Cavusoglu was welcomed by some 800 flag-waving Turks in Metz.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said in a statement that there was “no reason to prohibit this gathering”.
“I thank France. France was not deceived by such games,” Erdogan said.
Supporting Rutte’s decision to ban the visits, the Dutch government said that there was a risk of Turkish political divisions flowing over into its own Turkish minority, which has both pro- and anti-Erdogan camps.
The diplomatic row comes in the run-up to next week’s Dutch election in which the mainstream parties are under strong pressure from Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV).
Experts said it was too early to tell how events in Rotterdam might affect the election.
“If there is any impact, however, it is likely that Geert Wilders and his PVV Party will profit most,” said Leiden University professor of electoral research Joop van Holsteijn.
After Turkey’s family minister was escorted into Germany, Wilders tweeted: “Go away and never come back”.
The Dutch government cited public order and security worries in withdrawing landing rights for Cavusoglu’s flight and Turkey fired back, saying that the Dutch ambassador to Ankara should not return from leave “for some time”.
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Dutch embassy in Ankara and consulate in Istanbul.
Police sealed off both sites.
Meanwhile, in Istanbul yesterday a man climbed onto the roof of the Dutch consulate and replaced the Dutch flag with a Turkish flag.
The flag was later taken down and Turkish officials insisted the consulate had not been entered from the outside and “consular officials” had hoisted the flag on their own initiative.
The consulate declined to comment.
A Dutch foreign ministry spokeswoman told AFP that the situation “remains unclear” and the Netherlands had “protested to the Turkish authorities” over the incident.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she will do all she can to prevent Turkey’s domestic tensions spreading onto German territory.
Austria and Switzerland have also cancelled Turkish rallies due to the escalating dispute.
European Parliament Vice-President Alexander Graff Lambsdorff demanded a ban on Turkish ministers campaigning in the EU.
“The European Union should agree on a line that Turkish ministers are not allowed to campaign in the EU,” he said.
“The Dutch are showing how it is done, the German government pussyfoots around ... in that way Turkey can try to play one country off the other,” he told Die Welt newspaper.
Turkish Family Minister Kaya, who was stopped just outside the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam by Dutch police and, after several hours of negotiations, escorted back to the German border, received a hero’s welcome upon return to Turkey.
Arriving at Istanbul airport, Kaya was met by a crowd waving Turkish flags and said she and her entourage had been subjected to “rude and tough treatment”.
The Dutch government said Kaya was “irresponsible” for attempting to visit after being told she was not welcome.
The Netherlands is home to some 400,000 people of Turkish origin while Germany has 1.4mn people eligible to vote in Turkey – the fourth-largest electoral base after the cities of Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.
Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu with a supporter holding portraits of Turkish President Erdogan and Prime Minister Yildirim at the end of a political rally on Turkey’s upcoming referendum, in Metz, France.
