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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has spoken at “International Favor Awards” organized by the Presidency of Religious Affairs.

Erdoğan criticzed Minister of Family and Social Policies Fatma Betül Sayan-Kaya being not allowed to hold a referendum meeting at Turkish Embassy in the Netherlands’ Rotterdam city and then being deported.

Constantly saying “They will pay the price” in his speech, Erdoğan said they will take the necessary steps after the general elections to be held on March 15 in the Netherlands.

“Nazism is on its foot in the West”

“The West has revealed its true face in these past few days. When the incidents started to occur, I said these were fascistic crackdowns.  I said I’d thought Nazism had ended but I was wrong.

“In fact, Nazism is still on its foot. How can a country explain to not allow a Minister of ours, Fatma Sayan, enter the consulate building with a diplomatic vehicle".

“They sacrifice our relation for the elections”

“They extended their measures to not letting our consult outside the building. He needs to go out.

“All right then, you the Netherlands, if you sacrifice the Turkey-Holland relations for an election, then you will pay the price”.

“They will learn diplomacy”

“We will make the necessary evaluations after the elections in the Netherlands because it can’t be left unanswered.

“Those who manifest their own ambitions by setting dogs on [the people] will pay the price.

“One of them say Turks will leave here. Of course they won’t! They are the citizens of that country. They will pay the price. They will learn what diplomacy is”.

What happened?

The campaign meeting of Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on March 11 in Rotterdam for the referendum on the Constitutional Amendment Draft on April 16 was cancelled.

Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Abutalip had announced that the decision to cancel the meeting was taken by the owner of the hall Park de Heerlijkheid where the meeting was to take place due to lack of fire security measures. Mayor Abutalip noted however “If the owner of the hall had not, I would have cancelled the meeting myself for public order and security reasons”.

Çavuşoğlu in a TV program in CNN Türk called the Dutch “Nazis” following the remarks about Germany and if the Netherlands would revoke his landing rights, this would cause sanctions.

On March 11, the Netherlands revoked Minister Çavuşoğlu’s landing rights.

Netherland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Bert Koenders said that Çavuşoğlu’s call to the people from Turkey in the Netherlands for an assembly threatened “the public order and security”.

While the revocation of Çavuşoğlu’s landing rights sparked protests in Turkey and the Netherlands, Minister of Family and Social Policies Fatma Betül Sayan-Kaya who wanted to enter the Consulate of Turkey in Rotterdam where the protests were being staged was blocked and deported to Germany with police escort.

On March 15, General Elections will be held in the Netherlands.(EKN/TK)