Turkish interference in last week of Dutch general election may create political turmoil in results as large number of voters are still undecided. The broad range of political parties adds to the uncertainty. Yesterday US president Trump played a role in how the Dutch viewed foreign policy, today and up to the March 15 election date Erdogan will be the prime topic in Dutch news.
This may swing the popular vote back to Geert Wilders’anti-immigration rhetoric … damn! So the Dutch had stationed Patriot missiles on the Turkish border with Syria as NATO partner, now Erdogan is acting as the dictator I’ve expected him to become a few years back. We certainly live in globalization of political interference in national elections.
One can just throw out the latest polls … they’ll be worthless.
Dutch embassy in Turkey sealed off as tit-for-tat row escalates
Turkish authorities have sealed off the Dutch embassy and consulate, sources at Turkey’s foreign ministry have said, in the latest incident in a tit-for-tat row between the two countries over Turkish campaigning in Europe.
Turkey also closed off the residences of the Dutch ambassador, charge d’affaires and consul general as tensions between the Nato partners escalated after the Dutch government barred Turkey’s foreign minister from flying to Rotterdam.
In the Netherlands, the Turkish family affairs minister was also reported to have been detained by authorities to prevent her addressing a Rotterdam rally in support of the Turkish president.
According to Dutch broadcasters, Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya was held after travelling from Germany to the Dutch city by car. RTL said Kaya had been declared an “undesirable alien” and would be escorted back to Germany.
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Netherlands cancels flight permit for Turkish FM, escorts Family Affairs minister back to GermanyIn Rotterdam, riot police used horseback charges to break up a crowd shouting support for Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan outside the country’s consulate.
Earlier, Erdoğan branded the Netherlands “Nazi remnants” and “fascists” after the Dutch government withdrew permission for his foreign minister to landin the Netherlands for a planned visit.
Rotterdam city authorities withdrew permission on Friday for Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu to attend a meeting of the Turkish community to rally support for Erdoğan’s plans to extend his powers. The plans are to be voted on in a referendum in Turkey next month.
Several other European cities have banned Turkish officials from attending such meetings aimed at expats who are allowed to vote in the referendum.
The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, announced in a statement on Facebook that the plane carrying Çavuşoğlu had been barred from landing.
The Dutch vote on Wednesday in national elections, the campaigning for which has featured anti-immigration sentiment, and there are concerns Çavuşoğlu’s presence could disrupt public order.
Speaking at a rally in Istanbul, Erdoğan said of the Dutch government: “They do not know politics or international diplomacy … these Nazi remnants, they are fascists,” as the crowd booed in response.
Turkish family minister says Dutch police escorting her back to Germany amid row
Family Minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya said on March 12 that Dutch police is escorting her back to Germany after having been barred from entering the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam amid an escalating row between the two countries.
“I am being taken to Germany from the Nijmegen border with democratic and humanitarian values disregarded. I condemn this on behalf of all my citizens,” Kaya said in a tweet.
Sayan Kaya, who had arrived from Germany by road, was intercepted by Dutch police late on March 11 near the consulate building hours after Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu’s flight clearance to Rotterdam was cancelled over “security” and “public safety” issues.
Dutch police officers blocked around one kilometer of the road in front of the residence of the Turkish consul general to Rotterdam, where Çavuşoğlu’s meeting with Turkish citizens ahead of the April 16 referendum would take place.
Sayan Kaya said she requested the Netherlands and European countries to return back to “the democratic values they say to defend” after being intercepted.Thousands of protesters waving Turkish flags gathered outside the Rotterdam consulate, demanding to welcome the minister while protests also erupted in Istanbul and Ankara in front of the Dutch diplomatic missions which had been sealed off after the Dutch move.
Dutch police later used water cannon and horses to break up the protests following the minister’s leave.
Turkey says does not want Dutch envoy to return to post for a while
Turkish FM calls Netherlands’ decision to cancel flight permit `scandal’
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has called the Netherlands’ decision to cancel a flight permit for his airplane in order for him to attend a meeting with Turkish citizens in Rotterdam on March 11, a “scandal.”
“It is a scandal from every aspect and it is not acceptable. It does not fit into diplomatic practice. This is the most extreme point in diplomacy,” said Çavuşoğlu on March 11.
Çavuşoğlu was scheduled to fly to the Netherlands’ Rotterdam on March 11, to attend a meeting with Turkish citizens before a referendum in Turkey on April 16, during which a package of constitutional amendments will be voted upon.
But the flight clearance for his airplane to land in the country was canceled just hours before his flight on grounds of “security” and “public safety,” Dutch Foreign Ministry announced in a statement on March 11.
Upon this act, the Netherlands’ charge d’affaires to Ankara was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on March 11, state-run Anadolu Agency said.
“It is totally unacceptable that a foreign minister’s flight clearance, which was given in a written format, was also canceled in a written format,” Çavuşoğlu said, adding that there would “of course be a response.”
Earlier in the day Çavuşoğlu said that if the Netherlands canceled permit for his flight, Turkey would impose sanctions.
Of course Turkey has been a close and willing ally of the United States in its policy of regime change in Syria. As the sectarian civil war escalated with half a million deaths and millions of refugees flreing the war-torn state seeking safety in neighboring countries and in the end upsetting European open door policy for wartime refugees and asylum seekers.
After the attempted overthrow of Erdogan by a coup d’état last June, the EU and NATO policy towrads Turkey shifted. This gave Russia’s Putin a chance to mends ties with Erdogan and may loosen Turkey as a solid partner in NATO.
Hundreds of Turkish nationals and military experts workin in Brussels for NATO have defected and requested political asylum in Europe. Erdogan is really upset with his NATO partners.
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Putin hosts Erdoğan for high-level talks in Moscow - March 10 (AP)
○ All kinds of military cooperation with Russia in Syria: President Erdoğan
>>Erdogan is really upset with his NATO partners.
umm, and vice versa?
do i have this right? The Turkish ruling party wants to hold political rallies in other countries, and they
claim to be surprised and upset when the other government naturally finds this a problem.
“It is a scandal from every aspect and it is not acceptable. It does not fit into diplomatic practice.”
I would say that’s an exact description of what the Turks are trying to pull.
That was sort of my initial response as well. Until I stopped and recognized that the Turkish rallies in Amsterdam are for the Turkish expat there to vote in Turkey’s referendum. No different than rallies and fundraising by US presidential campaigns wherever a community of US expats live.
The only time I recall such an effort in the US was among Iraqi expats in the 2005 election. I’m sure Americans (or Democrats at the moment) would go ballistic if campaign rallies were held for Putin for Russian expats in the US. The world wouldn’t end if rallies and fundraising within any country were limited to domestic elections. Expats would just have to do without that component when filling out their absentee ballot. (Also don’t see any reason why anyone should have voting rights in more than one country but that’s a separate issue.)
Ehhh … Port city of Rotterdam
Demography of the two largest cities are quite different. Turkish population in Rotterdam the highest, the city of Pim Fortuyn who rode the wave of anti-immigration at the turn into the 21st century. Pim Fortuyn participated in both the national election pf 2002 and for municipal seats in Rotterdam city council. His local party Leefbaar Rotterdam (Livable Rotterdam) rapidly defeated the majority Labour party (PvdA) and had been a major voice and force in Rotterdam ever since.
From anti-immigration it evolved inti anti-Islam, putting up road blocs for separate Islamic schools, banning the headscarf and attempt to build new mosques. For second and third generation Turks who are Dutch nationals, not a fitting welcome for integration into Dutch society.
The city of Amsterdam is the financial capital with the Schiphol International airport hub as major economic stimulus. Also here the Labour party has seen historic defeats in the last decade. Labour had formes a coalition government with the right-wing Liberal party VVD who sits next to Wilders PVV on the right. PM Mark Rutte was forced to take harsh rhetoric against Erdogan and Turkey in the vein attempt to keep Wilders from becoming the largest party on March 15th.
In Amsterdam, there is a very large Moroccan community living in lower economic conditions, housing and failure to obtain jobs often due to market discrimination. Amsterdam is known from it’s Jewish minority and Dutch football club Ajax with supporters waving the flag of Israel during their home games. Naturally, these reflects on issues between Israel and Palestine and Amsterdam events with its Moroccan community.
The austerity measures of the last five years has cut provisions in health care, the poverty stricken and car for the elderly. Labour party will get the blame and be nearly wiped out in next election, likely losing 26 of their 38 seats in 150 member parliament.
The three largest parties in recent polls have all been to the right in party policy and populist rhetoric. Austerity measures playing in the hands of capital and banking institutions through gains in the far-right political parties. As I have been warning for years about this development, it doesn’t surprise me at all. Not in the States and not in Europe, from Geert Wilders, Le Pen, Brexit and a president called Trump. Am I a Republican… what a bs from my favorite blog site.
○ US/UK Invasion of Iraq – Blowback in Dutch politics by Oui @BooMan on July 17th, 2005!!
Per Amstetdam”s Jewish population, despite Dutch pride in opposing Nazi occupation and deportations, most Dutch Jews were in fact sent to death camps.
I chose not to go back and look at whatever controversy I set off. Arguing with people that can’t tell the difference between a FDR Democrat who also has a lifetime record supporting equal rights and opposing non-defensive wars and a Republican is a waste of time. One has to be pretty freaking ignorant or stupid not to recognize the huge differences. Rank partisanship blinds people as to the rot and fungible principles within one’s own party. And being as hypocritical as Republicans.
wrt to the topic of this diary — a majority of people have never been comfortable with or welcoming of “the other” or immigrants. Thus, it’s an easy issue for bottom feeding politicians to exploit. However, in public it’s also incumbent on immigrants to respect and fit in with secular societies and not hold dreams of remaking their new home into a version of the one they left and which wasn’t so good or they wouldn’t have emigrated.
They’re like partisan Democrats back in the ’60s that supported the Vietnam War because a Democratic President was waging it. “Good liberals” that conceptually supported the civil rights movement but not in their own lives. Like anti-busing Boston Democrats.
Let’s just agree to disagree and not comment on anything written by the other party.
Glorious Amsterdam – I have spent so much time there through the years. With all of the Black Bikes.
Amazing how much business gets done in Amsterdam – how many meetings wind up being held there that could as easily be held in London or Frankfurt.
There is research in Britain that these is a tipping point where immigration becomes so large that it creates a significant backlash. Ironically there is another point where it gets large enough that it ceases to generate tension.
The ironies overwhelm here. Erdogan, the wannabe Islamist dictator, whose government has imprisoned journalists and opponents on phony charges, attacks the Dutch as fascists? Pretty amusing.
Relevant to the topic of Ducth elections:
The Dutch far-right’s election donors are almost exclusively American — Quartz
I followed the liks and donations of more then 4,500 euros are disclosed. Unless “J.A. de Keizer” in Dordrecht is a Russian agent, the foreign donors of PVV are all from the US.
○ Geert Wilders a Likudnik sponsored by Daniel Pipes by Oui @BooMan on March 23, 2010 !!
○ Partners of Wilders in US Earn Big Bucks from Jihad Watch
Found this a helpful review: Dutch Election Debacle – Immigrant Bashing Leads Polls
The following is what US Democrats and European socialists can’t see/hear:
Le Pen, Wilders, etc. remind me of the now extinct white, southern FDR Democrats.
Huey Long
A precursor, but he was murdered in 1935; so, it’s unknown as to what he would have been by 1960 or 1965. The choice was junk the racism and remain a Democrat or junk Democratic socialism and become a Republican. Most chose the latter. Wallace refused to choose until much later when he “found God” and junked the racism.
Also, I can remember the hated figure of Wallace. What he did throughout most of his life wasn’t forgivable, but authentic atonement should be acknowledged and respected. Particularly when the path to get there is such a huge challenge for the person and there’s no, or little, reward in it for the person. Those that chose racism have done well for themselves. Strom Thurmond kept his job and got a nice funeral and Sessions got a comfy Senate seat and now gets to be U.S. Attorney General.
○ Geert Wilders out in the cold in Dutch election scrum | The Guardian |
○ EASO Country of Origin Information Report Turkey Country Focus
○ NATO officers from Turkey have turned into stateless asylum-seekers in Europe | DW |
○ The Netherlands ranks 5th
○ The United Dtates ranks 8th
Incarceration rate went down to 53 per 100,000 population. US is leading …
Latest polls indicate right-wing PVV a one-member party of Geert Wilders [dictating his own role in policy statements] is on a decline running close with Christian Democrats for 2nd spot. The conservative party of PM Mark Rutte makes the most gain after the row with Turkey: “showing ‘leadership’ as he himself exclaims.
The mayor of Rotterdam Aboutaleb declared that a special intervention team was ready to use firearms to remove the Turkish minister out of the neighbourhood after the Dutch government declared her a persona-non-grata. She was forced to return by another car to Germany.
○ Asteroid that hit the US in 1973 – the real cause of the growing social inequality in the US