Istanbul: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday threatened that the Netherlands would “pay a price” after expelling a Turkish minister and preventing Ankara’s top diplomat from landing ahead of planned rallies. The crisis with the Netherlands is the most serious yet as tensions spiral between Turkey and its EU allies over the desire of top Turkish officials to hold rallies abroad ahead of the April 16 referendum on a new constitution that would give Erdogan greater powers.
“Hey Holland! If you are sacrificing Turkish-Dutch relations for the sake of the elections on Wednesday, you will pay a price,” an angry Erdogan told a ceremony in Istanbul, referring to the upcoming legislative polls in Turkey’s Nato ally. “They will learn what diplomacy is.” Family minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya was expelled after being prevented from addressing a rally in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam. Police clashed with pro-Erdogan demonstrators in the Netherlands overnight while in Istanbul a man climbed onto the roof of the Dutch consulate and replaced the Dutch flag with a Turkish flag. The flag was later taken down and Turkish officials insisted the consulate had not been entered from the outside.
