Turkey to seek legal redress over Netherlands bar

By Aynur Ekiz and Canan Tukelay

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey will use international law to pursue the Netherlands over the blocking of ministers planning to attend campaign rallies, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said Monday.

Over the weekend, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and Family Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya were barred by the Dutch authorities from addressing Turkish nationals on the constitutional change referendum.

“What can Turkey do in the frame of the international law?” Bozdag said in an interview with Turkish broadcaster Kanal 24. “Of course, it will use all its rights and powers granted by international law and we will follow this issue.”

He added: “We will not allow anyone to harm the honor of the state of Turkey and its nation.”

The overseas campaign plans of Turkish ministers have been disrupted in the Netherlands, where a general election is being held Wednesday, and Germany by the cancellation of events and the barring of Cavusoglu and Kaya.

Bozdag said Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and other countries were opposed to the proposed constitutional change in Turkey, which would see the country’s parliamentary system overturned and wide-ranging powers handed to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“They are concerned as if Turkish people would change the systems of Germany, the Netherlands and Austria in the referendum,” he said.

The minister added: “They are on the No side in this referendum.”

The row over campaigning by Justice and Development (AK) Party politicians demonstrated the rising discrimination, racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia in Europe, Bozdag said.

The Netherlands’ refusal to allow Cavusoglu and Kaya entry was in breach of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, he claimed.

Speaking during a visit to Afyonkarahisar province in western Turkey, Forestry Minister Veysel Eroglu accused the Dutch of “impertinence” and “disrespect”.