{"id":11627,"date":"2017-03-12T08:12:20","date_gmt":"2017-03-12T08:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/turkey-referendum-clashes-as-dutch-expel-minister\/"},"modified":"2017-03-12T08:12:20","modified_gmt":"2017-03-12T08:12:20","slug":"turkey-referendum-clashes-as-dutch-expel-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/turkey-referendum-clashes-as-dutch-expel-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey referendum: Clashes as Dutch expel minister"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><figcaption>Media captionProtests erupted as the consulate in Rotterdam was blocked<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"caps\">Dutch riot police have clashed with protesters in Rotterdam, amid a diplomatic row that saw a Turkish minister escorted out of the country.<\/p>\n<p>Water cannon and police on horseback were used to disperse about 1,000 people outside the Turkish consulate.<\/p>\n<p>The minister was trying to win support among expatriates for a referendum on expanding Turkish presidential powers.<\/p>\n<p>The Dutch government says such rallies would stoke tensions days before the Netherlands&#039; general election.<\/p>\n<p>Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya, Turkey&#039;s family minister, had arrived by road on Saturday ahead of her planned rally.<\/p>\n<p>But she was denied entry to the consulate in Rotterdam.<\/p>\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<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  Reuters<figcaption>Image caption                                      Fatma Betul Kaya Sayan tweeted updates as she was escorted out of the country                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  Reuters<figcaption>Image caption                                      Some 1,000 protesters took to the streets outside the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Earlier, the Netherlands had barred Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu from entering the country by plane. He has now travelled to Metz in northern France to address a rally there on Sunday.<\/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>Ms Kaya said on Twitter: &quot;The world must take a stance in the name of democracy against this fascist act! This behaviour against a female minister can never be accepted.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Sunday that Turkey would respond in the &quot;harshest ways&quot; to this &quot;unacceptable behaviour&quot;.<\/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>Turkey&#039;s Hurriyet newspaper later reported that Ms Kaya had flown from Cologne back to Istanbul.<\/p>\n<p>Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had earlier denounced the Dutch government as &quot;Nazi remnants and fascists&quot; for denying the rallies.<\/p>\n<p>The BBC&#039;s Turkey correspondent, Mark Lowen, says that what began as a diplomatic row has turned into a full-blown bilateral crisis.<\/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<figure>                                                                                                       Image copyright                  AFP<figcaption>Image caption                                      President Erdogan is hoping to win sweeping new powers                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\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 the votes of citizens living within Turkey and abroad. <\/p>\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 is keen to get them on side.<\/p>\n<p>So a number of rallies have been planned for countries with large numbers of expat voters, 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. <\/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<p>Mr Rutte said the Netherlands asked Turkey to desist as they feared &quot;compromised public order and security&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>The Dutch government is also facing a severe electoral challenge from the anti-Islam party of Geert Wilders in its election on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>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><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 captionProtests erupted as the consulate in Rotterdam was blocked Dutch riot police have clashed with protesters in Rotterdam, amid a diplomatic row that saw a Turkish minister escorted out<\/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-11627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11627","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=11627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}