Dutch Consul General: It wasn’t a Consular Officer Who Hauled Down the Flag

Click to read the article in Turkish/Kurdish

The Dutch Consul General to İstanbul Robert Schuddeboom has issued statements on replacing Dutch flag with Turkey’s flag following the escalating tension.

Remarking that the allegations that the flag was hauled down with the initiative of the consular officers was "absurd", Schuddeboom said they conveyed their complaints to the Foreign Ministry.

According to a report by Duygu Güvenç from Cumhuriyet newspaper, the Consul General stated he saw a man shouting “Allah-u Akbar” after hanging the Turkey’s flag, and added; “This is a crime no matter what the result is: this is an attack on a diplomatic land of the Dutch Consulate”.

Schuddeboom also noted he doesn’t like references fo Hitler and Nazis and that neither himself nor his wife plan to leave Turkey as they feel a part of the country.

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.

Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte said that he wished the tension to de-escelate but they would not apologize.

On March 13, Turkey sent two diplomatic notes to the Netherlands.

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