10:30 p.m.
Turkey says it is halting all high-level political discussions with the Netherlands in the wake of the Dutch government’s decision to bar two cabinet ministers from campaigning in the country.
Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said during a news conference following a weekly cabinet meeting that Ankara also is closing its air space to Dutch diplomats until the Netherlands meets Turkish requests
He says Turkey’s government plans to advise parliament to withdraw from a Dutch-Turkish friendship group.
Kurtulmus says the political sanctions will apply until the Netherlands takes steps to “redress” its actions.
He said: “There is a crisis and a very deep one. We didn’t create this crisis or bring to this stage.”
8:25 p.m.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says two of his cabinet ministers will apply to the European human rights court over their treatment in the Netherlands.
Erdogan also slammed German Chancellor Angela Merkel for siding with the Netherlands in the dispute over Turkish ministers’ campaign rallies in Europe.
Merkel said Monday that the Netherlands has her “full support and solidarity” after Turkey’s president used Nazi comparisons to criticize Dutch treatment of Turkish ministers.
Erdogan repeated those terms again in the interview, accusing the Netherlands of “Nazism” and “Neo-Nazism.”
5:20 p.m.
Turkey’s minister in charge of European Union affairs says his country should consider reviewing its migration deal with the EU and relax controls on people reaching Europe over land.
Omer Celik’s comments, reported by the state-run Anadolu Agency, came amid tensions with the Netherlands and other European countries over Turkish ministers traveling abroad to court Turkish citizens’ votes in an upcoming referendum.
4:35 p.m.
The surge in tensions from the diplomatic dispute between the Netherlands and Turkey appears to have spread online, with a handful of Dutch websites vandalized with pro-Turkish imagery and slogans.
4:10 p.m.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has welcomed support from Germany’s leader in his country’s diplomatic row with Turkey that boiled over this weekend.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday that the Netherlands has her “full support and solidarity” after Turkey’s president used Nazi comparisons to criticize Dutch treatment of Turkish ministers.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the Dutch “Nazi remnants” after a Turkish minister was escorted out of the country less than a day after Turkey’s foreign minister was denied entry. He already had accused Germany of “Nazi practices,” drawing a rebuke last week from Merkel.
1:40 p.m.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus says the Netherlands will be forced to apologize to Turkey for preventing two ministers from holding campaign rallies.
Kurtulmus said Monday Turkey would give the “necessary response” after the Netherlands escorted the family affairs minister out of the country and denied the foreign minister permission to land. He did not elaborate on the measures Turkey planned.
Kurtulmus told a business meeting in Istanbul that “you will see that in the end, they will come to the point where they will apologize.”
The deputy prime minister described the ministers’ treatment as “footsteps of the far-right, of the neo-fascism and neo-Nazism that has been on the rise in Europe in the past five or six years.”
This morning, Eurointelligence reported “There were riots in Rotterdam after the Netherlands prevented two Turkish ministers from holding a rally with Turks ahead of Turkey’s April 16 constitutional referendum, and deported one of them”
It would hardly be surprising if Turkey did cancel the deal. I had been expecting that for some time. If so, Merkel’s political expediency will have backfired once again.
With a Dutch election on Wednesday, it seems likely Erdogan fomented this dispute now, on purpose. It was a no-lose political scenario for him to shore up his radical support while doing the same for Geert Wilders.
Those posts show exactly who Merkel got into bed with. She cannot admit mistake her now. And given her blatant stubbornness in general, I do not know if she will ever admit a mistake.
