Turkey’s Erdogan Sees ‘Spirit of Fascism’ Rising in Europe

Members of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish opposition party said on Tuesday they were optimistic that a majority of Turks would vote against expanding the powers of President Tayyip Erdogan in an April 16 referendum.

Around 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed by Bosnian Serb troops in Srebrenica.

“Until the Netherlands compensates for what it has done, high-level relations and planned meetings at a ministerial and higher level have been suspended”, said Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus after a cabinet meeting in Ankara.

The Netherlands’ Prime Minister Mark Rutte fired back, saying Erdogan’s criticism was “crazy”.

The wild card in the general elections in the Netherlands today is Turkey and the growing antiimmigration policy sentiment among the Dutch.

Turkey’s family minister flew home to Istanbul on Sunday after Dutch authorities expelled her for seeking to woo the vote of expatriate Turks for a key referendum at home. The autocratic ways of Turkey – once a model of democracy, with a Muslim political party leading the country to economic success – are now simply antithetical to the European liberal value of free speech.

Turkey called the appeal “worthless”. Several European countries, including Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands, and some German towns, banned such rallies, raising security concerns as well as fear of domestic political repercussions.

Having witnessed tension over the past few days, Turkey made a decision to further escalate the unrest with the Netherlands after the latter had prohibited two Turkish ministers from rallying to gather support for the upcoming Turkish referendum. Some 5.5 million Turks live outside the country, including an estimated 400,000 in the Netherlands.

The latest row came after North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies Turkey and Germany sparred over the cancellation of a series of referendum campaign events there. “These are Dutch citizens”, Rutte insisted, adding like Turkey “The Netherlands is a proud country”.

Erdogan also said Turkey will challenge the Netherlands’ actions in the European Court of Human Rights.

His remarks touch a raw nerve in the Netherlands, despite a United Nations tribunal prosecuting Bosnian Serbs for the actual killings.

Germany rejected as “absurd” yesterday (6 March) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s comparison of its ban on several rallies to the Nazi era, but it also stressed the importance of ties between the two North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies in an attempt to defuse an escalating war of words. Rotterdam was devastated by German bombing during the invasion.

But his volcanic rhetoric has not gone down well in the European Union and has raised questions about the continuation of Turkey’s half century long bid to join the bloc.

How is this affecting the Dutch election?

The latter was a reference to the ongoing influx of migrants, many arriving in Italy after being rescued at sea with most hoping to continue to northern European countries like the Netherlands.

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.

Could there be wider repercussions?

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“Mr. Rutte said that the detentions were carried out by mistake”, Yildirim said.

With Turkish-EU relations in crisis amid the escalating war of words, the migrant deal may be in jeopardy.

Turkish officials have suggested reconsidering part of the deal with the European Union to stem the flow of undocumented migrants.