Turkish parliamentary rights commission holds talks with Dutch authorities

By Selman Aksunger

The HAGUE (AA) - The Turkish parliamentary sub-commission on combating Islamophobia and racism in Europe gathered with Turkish non-governmental organizations and Dutch officials in The Hague on Thursday.

Hakan Cavusoglu, the head of parliament’s human rights commission, said the issue of racism and Islamophobia in the Netherlands is similar to that of Europe in general, which is in poor condition.

"We see rise in racism, Islamophobic acts and attacks in Europe and witnessed that this posed a threat to the Muslim community," he said, adding the growing discrimination across the Netherlands and Europe also brought along challenges for other ethnic and religious minorities.

Some central parties in Europe are using far-right discourses for the sake of votes, Cavusoglu said, adding that the media rhetoric regarding the Muslim community was biased.

He further referred to a pre-election leaked report prepared by the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism which works under the Netherlands' Justice and Security Ministry, saying that it manipulated the public view by saying that the mosques affiliated with Türkiye's Diyanet were linked to the jihadist groups in the report, which also made "baseless allegations" against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

According to the Turkish official, the report sought to pave the way for fear among the Dutch community and several Turkish people with dual citizenship were taken into a black list for donating or assisting mosques and associations.

On top of this, the people who were blacklisted were deprived of their benefits, and this dragged families into financial grievances, enabling social services authorities to separate them from their children, he said.

Some families failed to find their children as their names were changed, he said, noting that the commission discussed this matter with the NGOs it contacted.

Furthermore, he underlined that the commission's visit helped create awareness on Islamophobia and discrimination among the Dutch authorities and Türkiye welcomed the Dutch move to appoint a coordinator to combat racism and discrimination.

"Türkiye will always take essential steps to defend rights of its citizens," he said.

*Writing by Ali Murat Alhas in Ankara