Dutch withdraw ambassador to Turkey as ties sour

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February 5, 2018 1:51 PM

Relations have deteriorated in the past months, after Dutch officials barred a Turkish minister from attending a rally in Rotterdam on the eve of the March general elections here.

The Netherlands announced Monday it was withdrawing its ambassador from Turkey, and will refuse to allow Ankara to post one in the country as diplomatic ties plunge to new lows.

Despite recent high-level talks between the two countries, "we have not been able to agree on the way normalisation should take place," Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra said in a statement.

The Dutch government has therefore "decided to officially withdraw the Netherlands' ambassador in Ankara, who has not had access to Turkey since March 2017," the foreign ministry added.

"As long as the Netherlands has no ambassador to Turkey, the Netherlands will also not issue permission for a new Turkish ambassador to take up duties in the Netherlands."

Relations between the two NATO allies have spiralled to an all-time low after the Netherlands expelled Turkey's Family Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kayar in March.

The country had also barred another minister's plane from landing as both Turkish politicians sought to attend a Rotterdam rally of Dutch-Turkish citizens in favour of last April's Turkish referendum.

But Betul Sayan Kayar defied the Dutch government ban, arriving by car from Germany to press for the powers of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to be extended in the referendum.

No 'magic formula'

Protests erupted in the port city as Dutch police stopped her addressing the rally, and escorted her out of the country.

Riot police had to move in to break up an angry demonstration using dogs, horses and water cannon, which added to political tensions just days before the Dutch general elections.

Furious Turkish officials in vain demanded an apology for the minister's treatment from Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

And the Dutch ambassador, who had been abroad at the time, was blocked from returning to Turkey.

Erdogan even accused the Dutch of behaving like "fascists" in their treatment of the Turkish ministers -- comments which triggered anger in the Netherlands occupied by Nazi Germany in World War II.

The Netherlands is home to some 400,000 people of Turkish origin, and the two countries have had diplomatic relations for some four centuries.

But ties first began to strain in 2012 over a row about a Turkish boy adopted by Dutch lesbian parents.

And in 2016 Turkish-Dutch journalist Ebru Umar was arrested and briefly detained after she tweeted comments critical of Erdogan. She was only released after an intervention from the Dutch foreign ministry.

The Dutch NOS public broadcaster reported Monday that the recent talks had sought to find a "magic formula" to restore ties, under which neither side would have to apologise.

"This formula has clearly not been found, and the deterioration between the two countries has clearly gone further than we thought," NOS added.

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