Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya was detained by the Dutch police at the consulate before being further escorted to Germany, RTL News reported.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte issued a statement, calling the visit of the Turkish minister “irresponsible” and the rhetoric by Turkish authorities “unacceptable.”
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| Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (C) arrives at the Metz-Nancy-Lorraine airport in Goin near Metz, Eastern France, March 11, 2017. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler |
“In mutual contact with Turkey, Netherlands has repeatedly made it clear that public order and security in our country should not be compromised,” Rutte said, adding that the Dutch government repeatedly told its Turkish counterparts that Kaya is “not welcome in the Netherlands.”
"Minister Kaya is on her way to Germany, accompanied by police. Her car is being driven back. This also applies to her guards and employees," Rotterdam’s mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb told news agency NOS.
In a televised statement, Aboutaleb accused Turkish officials at the general consulate of “misleading” him on the forthcoming visit of Kaya. The mayor claimed that the Turkish consul general told him nothing had been planned for that day in the consulate.
“He outright lied,” Aboutaleb said, adding that he was also offended by the comparison of the Dutch authorities with fascists, made earlier by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“He forgets I’m the mayor of Rotterdam, which was bombed by the Nazis,” Aboutaleb said.
Reporters live tweeting from the scene said that after the detention was announced, the minister remained in her armored car until a truck arrived to tow the vehicle. She then reportedly came out of her car to be escorted away in another vehicle.
Earlier, Cavusoglu insisted that he would go ahead with his visit to Rotterdam even if local Dutch authorities did not agree to his taking part in a rally promoting a change in Turkey’s constitution.
Cavusoglu intended to campaign at the rally to drum up votes in favor of an April referendum that would give the Turkish president new powers, but Rotterdam’s mayor, Ahmed Aboutaleb, banned the Turkish official from speaking in public in the city late Friday.
Meanwhile, the deputy chairman of Turkey’s ultranationalist MHP party, Semih Yalçın, has claimed the Turks were ready to stage a protest at the airport the Turkish Foreign Minister was supposed to land at.
“Our friends have now started a sit-in at the airport where the Foreign Ministry was planning to land,” Yalçın said, adding that the aim is to demonstrate a “reaction to Europe.”
Yalçın has also accused the European country of a “medieval mentality.”
MHP’s chairman Devlet Bahceli has discussed the sit-in with Head of Confederation of Turks in Europe, Cemal Cetin, Anadolu Agency reports. They decided the protest would be “in line with laws in the European country.”
Meanwhile, Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders has also been adding fuel to the fire, tweeting that the Turkish minister should “go away and never come back” and "take all her Turkish fans" as she leaves.
