Amid strained relations with the Netherlands, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Sunday that the Dutch ambassador to Turkey, who is currently on vacation, will not be able to set foot in the country.
“The ambassador will not be able to set foot in Turkey, and the Dutch will apologize,” the minister said while in France following the expulsion of a Turkish minister and the forceful dispersal of Turkish protesters in Rotterdam on Saturday.
Dutch authorities took a stance against Turkish politicians campaigning on their soil in favor of expanding President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s powers in an April 16 referendum.
The flight clearance for Çavuşoğlu’s aircraft to land in the Netherlands was cancelled on Saturday, and another minister was escorted to the German border after she tried to visit the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam to give a political speech.
“I wait in anticipation to see if the European Union reacts to such a fascist attitude,” Çavuşoğlu said while talking to reporters during his campaigning for the referendum in France. He also vowed consequences for Dutch prevention of the Turkish ministers’s visits.
Çavuşoğlu also said Europe was moving towards the pre-World War II era. He claimed a Turkish diplomat was “detained and kept in a cell in the Netherlands.”
“My consul general was not allowed outside the mission, which is Turkish soil,” Çavuşoğlu also asserted, adding that the Dutch treatment of the diplomat was contrary to the Vienna Conventions.
Turkish government aims to gain the support of Turkish citizens living in Europe who are eligable for voting in Turkey’s elections.
