{"id":11599,"date":"2017-03-12T06:10:12","date_gmt":"2017-03-12T06:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/turkey-referendum-dutch-expel-erdogans-minister-amid-protests\/"},"modified":"2017-03-12T06:10:12","modified_gmt":"2017-03-12T06:10:12","slug":"turkey-referendum-dutch-expel-erdogans-minister-amid-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/turkey-referendum-dutch-expel-erdogans-minister-amid-protests\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey referendum: Dutch expel Erdogan&#8217;s minister amid protests"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><figcaption>Media captionTurkey referendum: Protests as consulate in Rotterdam is blocked<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"caps\">Dutch riot police have used water cannons and horses to disperse protesters outside the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam, as the city expelled a Turkish minister.<\/p>\n<p>More than 1,000 people had gathered outside the building as the diplomatic row between the two nations escalated.<\/p>\n<p>Protesters were reportedly throwing bottles and mobbing police cars.<\/p>\n<p>Turkey&#039;s family minister was denied access to the consulate, and later escorted to the German border.<\/p>\n<p>Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya had arrived by road on Saturday ahead of a rally planned to help harness the votes of Turks living in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n<p>They will be voting in a referendum next month on whether to expand Mr Erdogan&#039;s powers.<\/p>\n<p>But when she arrived, Dutch authorities refused to allow her entry to the consulate, sparking a stream of angry tweets.<\/p>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  Reuters<figcaption>Image caption                                      Fatma Betul Kaya Sayan tweeted updates as she was escorted out of the country                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Ms Kaya was then taken to the German border by police, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte confirmed early on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n<p>In a Facebook post, Mr Rutte said attempts to find a &quot;reasonable solution&quot; to the countries&#039; differences had proved &quot;impossible&quot;, while dismissing Ms Kaya&#039;s arrival in Rotterdam as &quot;irresponsible&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>Turkey is holding a referendum on 16 April on whether to turn from a parliamentary to a presidential republic, more akin to the United States.<\/p>\n<p>If successful, it would give sweeping new powers to the president, allowing them to appoint ministers, prepare the budget, choose the majority of senior judges and enact certain laws by decree.<\/p>\n<p>What&#039;s more, the president alone would be able to announce a state of emergency and dismiss parliament.<\/p>\n<p>In order to get it passed, Mr Erdogan needs to get the votes of both those citizens living in, and out, of Turkey.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Turkish-German ties fray as Erdogan chases diaspora vote<\/li>\n<li>Turkey says &#039;No&#039; to saying &#039;No&#039;, ahead of its referendum<\/li>\n<li>Erdogan rallies not welcome in Austria<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are 5.5 million Turks living outside the country, with 1.4 million eligible voters in Germany alone - and the Yes campaign are keen to get them on side.<\/p>\n<p>So a number of rallies have been planned for countries where large numbers of voters currently live, including Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n<p>However, Mr Erdogan&#039;s supporters have found themselves blocked from holding these rallies.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the countries have cited security concerns as the official reason the rallies have been banned or moved.<\/p>\n<p>Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said Mr Erdogan was not welcome to hold rallies as this could increase friction and hinder integration.<\/p>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  AFP<figcaption>Image caption                                      Riot police broke it up in the early hours of Sunday morning                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the Netherlands asked Turkey to desist as they feared &quot;compromised public order and security&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>However, many European nations have also expressed deep disquiet about Turkey&#039;s response to the July coup attempt and the country&#039;s perceived slide towards authoritarianism under President Erdogan.<\/p>\n<p>Germany in particular has been critical of the mass arrests and purges that followed - with nearly 100,000 civil servants removed from their posts.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Erdogan has lashed out at Germany and the Netherlands, denouncing the Dutch government as &quot;Nazi remnants and fascists&quot;, while accusing Germany of &quot;Nazi practices&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>German Chancellor Angela Merkel has condemned the Nazi jibe as &quot;unacceptable&quot;, while Mr Rutte dismissed it as a &quot;crazy remark&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>But Mr Erdogan escalated the rhetoric after the Netherlands banned his foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu from entering the country by plane by threatening to block Dutch flights.<\/p>\n<p>He said: &quot;Ban our foreign minister from flying however much you like, but from now on, let&#039;s see how your flights will land in Turkey.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Mr Cavusoglu also warned Turkey would impose heavy sanctions if his visit was blocked.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Kaya&#039;s arrival, by road, was seen as a further provocation by Turkey on the part of the Dutch - although Mr Rutte says his government remains &quot;in favour&quot; of speaking with Mr Erdogan and his colleagues to find a resolution.<\/p>\n<p><a rel='nofollow' href=http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-europe-39246392 target=\"_blank\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Media captionTurkey referendum: Protests as consulate in Rotterdam is blocked Dutch riot police have used water cannons and horses to disperse protesters outside the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam, as the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11599\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}