Hundreds of Turkish protesters staged a demonstration outside the Dutch Consulate in Istanbul in the early hours of Sunday (March 12) as a diplomatic spat between the Netherlands and Turkey deepens.
The Netherlands barred Turkey’s foreign minister from landing in Rotterdam on Saturday (March 12) in a row over Ankara’s political campaigning among Turkish emigres, leading President Tayyip Erdogan to brand its fellow NATO member a “Nazi remnant.”
The dispute escalated in the evening as Turkey’s family minister was prevented by police from entering the Turkish consulate in the Rotterdam while hundreds of protesters waving Turkish flags gathered outside demanding to see the minister.
Dutch police were escorting the minister to the German border, the mayor of Rotterdam said early Sunday.
“It is unacceptable that a Turkish minister, or any minister, is given such treatment,” said one protester in Istanbul.
Family Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya had traveled by road to the Netherlands from neighbouring Germany after the Dutch government revoked landing rights for a plane carrying Turkey’s foreign minister earlier on Saturday.
(REUTERS)
