Turkish FM says sanctions will be imposed if Netherlands cancels flight

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said March 11 that if the Netherlands cancels permit for his flight to the country later in the day, Turkey would impose sanctions.

کد خبر: ۶۷۵۹۸۴

تاریخ: ۲۱ اسفند ۱۳۹۵ - ۱۲:۳۰

Hurriyet - Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said March 11 that if the Netherlands cancels permit for his flight to the country later in the day, Turkey would impose sanctions.

"Now there is the Netherlands. Dutch [nationalist politician Geert] Wilders acts like a Nazi. He threatens the foreign minister of the Turkish Republic with not letting the airplane take off. But I will go today,” said Çavuşoğlu during a live interview with private broadcaster CNNTürk on March 11.

"If the Netherlands cancels my flight clearance today then we will impose huge sanctions,” he said, adding that times had passed when foreign countries thought Turkey would not react to whatever they did.

Relations between Germany, Austria and the Netherlands on the one hand and Turkey on the other soured over Turkey’s planned "meeting with citizens” campaign events ahead of the April 16 referendum, during which a package of constitutional amendments will be voted upon.

Germany, Austria and the Netherlands have canceled such scheduled events to be attended by Turkish ministers in their own countries usually on grounds of security reasons. A large amount of Turkish citizens or people with Turkish heritage live in these countries and Turkish citizens living abroad have the right to vote in elections and referenda.

On March 9, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that they do not want Çavuşoğlu to hold rallies.

"This is the most serious thing we can do, to tell the foreign affairs minister of a NATO ally: ‘We know you will come to the Netherlands: Don’t come,’” he said.

Rutte added that the local authorities would be unlikely to authorize any rally Çavuşoğlu would attend. "And if you still decide to come, you won’t have a chauffeur driven car, no escort, no support,” he said, adding that while "there are people who will say, ‘you have to arrest him at Schiphol,’ we will stop just short of that.”