Netherlands cancels flight permit for Turkish FM

[Recursion]

Source: Hurriyet Daily News (Turkey)

The Netherlands has canceled a flight clearance for Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on March 11, which caused reaction from Turkey, after Çavuşoğlu said hours earlier that Turkey would impose “severe sanctions” against the Dutch state.

Çavuşoğlu was scheduled to fly to the Netherlands’ Rotterdam on March 11, but the flight clearance for his airplane to land in the country was canceled just hours before his flight on grounds of "security" and "public safety," Dutch Foreign Ministry announced in a statement on March 11, according to state-run Anadolu Agency.

The Netherlands’ charge d’affaires to Ankara was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on March 11, state-run Anadolu Agency said.

After his rallies were canceled in the Netherlands, Çavuşoğlu was set to hold a meeting at the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam late on March 11. In a statement, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) Rotterdam election coordination center that the event was canceled after the Netherlands' halt to Çavuşoğlu's flight permit.

Read more: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/netherlands-cancels-flight-permit-for-turkish-fm.aspx?PageID=238&NID=110688&NewsCatID=351

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This is getting ugly.

Expat Turks can (mostly) vote in Turkey's elections, but Germany and the Netherlands are pressuring Turkish politicians not to hold rallies in their countries.

[OnDoutside]

1. Hopefully this puts paid to any thoughts of Turkey joining the EU.

[Recursion]

2. Not if that pushes Erdogan towards Putin

We need some carrot in this mix.

[OnDoutside]

3. Which is why the US wanted Turkey within the EU, but there has always been pushback against

that, not least because it has never been a truly democratic country, and the Turks have been very slow to curtail their human rights abuses, most notably against the Kurds. With Erdogan in place, it isn't going to get any better.

[Jake Stern]

4. Whenever I read about Erdogan this quote from Ataturk comes to mind

"He is a weak ruler who needs religion to uphold his government; it is as if he would catch his people in a trap. My people are going to learn the principles of democracy, the dictates of truth and the teachings of science. Superstition must go. Let them worship as they will; every man can follow his own conscience, provided it does not interfere with sane reason or bid him against the liberty of his fellow-men."