Turkey's Dustup With Dutch Goes Beyond Politics: QuickTake Q&A - Bloomberg
Turkey’s troubled relations with its European allies grew even more strained over the weekend after the Netherlands barred two Turkish ministers from entering the country to campaign for constitutional changes. Turkish officials shot back by calling the Dutch “fascists” and “Nazi remnants,” deepening the diplomatic quarrel.
1. How did the fight start?
It actually started in Germany, when authorities refused to let the Turkish ministers of foreign affairs and justice address Turkish expatriates before an April 16 referendum on amending the constitution to expand President Recep Tayyip Erodgan’s powers. Bekir Bozdag, the justice minister, accused German authorities of trying to prevent the measure from being passed. Mevlut Cavusoglu, the foreign minister, skirted the ban by speaking from the balcony of the Turkish consular residence in Hamburg.
2. How did Turkey respond?
By escalating. In a speech in Istanbul on March 5, Erdogan called the German actions “fascist” and claimed they demonstrated that Germany hasn’t moved on from its Nazi past. The German government called the remarks out of place and warned Turkey to stop using such language.
3. How did it get to the Netherlands?
First, the Netherlands refused to let Cavusoglu fly to Rotterdam for an event there. Dutch police later intercepted Turkish Family Affairs Minister Fatma Kaya, who was trying to enter the country by land from Germany, declaring her an unwanted foreigner and escorting her back to Germany. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said “a line had to be drawn” and that the Netherlands wouldn’t allow itself to be “blackmailed” by any further provocations.
4. Why are Turkish officials campaigning in Europe anyway?
Because about 3 million potential Turkish voters live abroad, the vast majority in Europe. Many arrived in the 1960s and 1970s under guest worker programs Germany and the Netherlands launched to address labor shortages. But there’s a twist: Under Turkish law, campaigning abroad is illegal. The Turkish elections authority also confirmed a ban on “all forms of propaganda” abroad in a Feb. 15 statement this year on the upcoming referendum.
5. Does this have repercussions for Dutch politics?
It could. The Dutch are holding elections on March 15. Anti-Islam and anti-immigration candidate Geert Wilders has used the incident to try to recapture lost ground, calling Erdogan a “dictator” and inviting any Turks who share his views to leave the country. The Dutch vote is being watched as a bellwether for broader trends in Europe before France and Germany, the largest economies in the euro area, hold elections this year amid a groundswell of nationalist support.
6. Does the Netherlands matter for Turkey?
Quite a lot. The Netherlands is by far the biggest foreign investor in Turkey, plowing in $20 billion in the decade up to 2015, almost twice as much as second-place U.S., according to a report on the Turkish Economy Ministry’s website. While business-friendly regulations in the Netherlands mean not all of those companies are originally Dutch -- even some Turkish companies have carried out acquisitions in Turkey using Netherlands-based vehicles -- more than 2,500 Dutch companies operate in Turkey. Just this month, Rotterdam-based Vitol Group BV agreed to pay almost $1.5 billion for OMV Petrol Ofisi AS, Turkey’s largest network of fuel stations. Its Foreign Ministry promised unspecified “serious consequences in the diplomatic, political, economic and other fields of our relations.” It asked the Dutch ambassador, who was away on leave, not to return to his post “for some time” and closed the Dutch missions in Ankara and Istanbul, citing security concerns amid protests outside. European governments will be watching closely for any repercussions on an already troubled deal on Syrian refugees between Turkey and the European Union, brokered by Germany. Turkey has largely closed down the immigrants’ passage to Europe in exchange for cash and visa benefits for Turkish citizens, which it says Europe has failed to deliver.7. What’s Turkey likely to do next?
The Reference Shelf
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