Mr Erdogan’s rhetoric intensified when he accused the Dutch of carrying out the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia in 1995.
Advertisement
Erdogan warned the Netherlands it will “pay the price” for harming ties by barring his ministers and compared the Dutch government to Nazis.
“Their request for us to relax our terror legislation when they are broadening theirs has nothing to do with objectivity and justice”, he said.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Tuesday said that the sanctions were “not too bad” but were inappropriate as the Dutch have more to be angry about. We are not going to reduce ourselves to this level. “It is totally unacceptable”, Rutte told Dutch broadcaster RTL Z.
Report says in Germany, around 1.4 million Turks are eligible to vote.
Survivors and their relatives voiced outrage over the use of their suffering in Turkey’s feud with the Netherlands.
“By displaying state-sponsored terror on Saturday, the Netherlands has greatly damaged the European Union, its values which are no longer a bloc of laws and freedoms”, Efe news quoted Erdogan as saying.
Unlike the USA or French presidential elections, there will be no outright Dutch victor, with up to 15 parties having a realistic chance of winning a seat in parliament and none set to gain even 20 percent of the vote.
The Dutch elections and the Turkish referendum are the latest battlegrounds for far-right politics..
“The Netherlands is Europe, and today I want to say that Europe is The Netherlands”.
Tensions have increased between Berlin and the Hague with Turkey after Mr Erdogan repeatedly described the actions against Turkish officials as reminiscent of the Nazis.
Kilicdaroglu urged the government to recall Turkey’s ambassador to the Netherlands. “Those who did have to take steps to redress the situation”.
Recent opinion polls suggest that the Turkish electorate is deeply divided, with at best a small majority willing to massage Erdogan’s massive ego – despite the fact that the more articulate opponents of his constitutional changes in both the political and media spheres have been incarcerated or silenced by other means. Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Turkey Customs and Trade Minister Bulent Tufenkci as saying economic sanctions “could come to the agenda in the period ahead”. Cavusoglu asked in an interview Monday with CNN’s “Connect the World”.
Wilders, who has vowed to “de-Islamicise” the Netherlands, has virtually no chance of forming a government given that all the leading parties have ruled out working with him, but a PVV win would still send shock waves across Europe.
Merkel has refrained from reacting to Erdogan. “The accusations are recognizably absurd”.
Erdogan has said that those who oppose the referendum, are aligning themselves with terrorists. The Netherlands and Germany have barred the ministers, citing public safety.
But Rutte said his government “will keep working to de-escalate where we can”. Another Turkish minister who arrived by vehicle to the consulate was escorted by police out of the country.
The rallies were called to encourage large Turkish communities in the European Union to vote Yes in a referendum on 16 April on expanding the Turkish president’s powers.
Advertisement
Deputy Turkish Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus announced the freeze in Ankara Monday amid an escalating row over Turkish officials’ access to the Netherlands.
