Human Rights Watch Warns of 'Authoritarian Drift' in Turkey

[Syt]

I'm shocked that supporters of a strongman turn to violence when they don't get their will.

[Duque de Bragança]

Wilders would have probably benefited more from an incendiary Turkish rally on Dutch soil.

More than the "guest" fifth column rioting against the police of their country or residence? 

[celedhring]

Wilders has benefitted from the whole fracas, that I will never put in doubt, but probably could've exploited the situation better if the Dutch government had been more agreeable to Turkish demands.

[Duque de Bragança]

Glad that you have reconsidered your stance. 

Of course now the plane has been granted authorization to land in Metz, in Elsaß-Mosel, for more electoral propaganda.  Invited by the Lothringian (Lorraine) branch of the UETD party (Union of Turkish European Democrats in English) for Herr Dogan.
Can't expect more from the multiculturalist French left in power. Marine, rejoice!

[The Larch]

Set over-reaction engines to Ludicrous!

Turkey bans Dutch ambassador as diplomatic crisis escalates

Deputy prime minister ratchets up rhetoric and prospect is raised of end to deal that has curbed migration from Turkey to Greece


Turkey has suspended high-level political contacts with the Netherlands and threatened to re-evaluate a key deal to halt the flow of migrants to Europe in a dramatic escalation of its diplomatic row with EU member states.

Numan Kurtulmuş, a deputy prime minister and chief government spokesman, said on Monday that the Dutch ambassador, who is on leave, would not be allowed to return in response to a ban on Turkish ministers speaking at rallies in the Netherlands.

Turkey would also close its airspace to Dutch diplomats, Kursulmuş said, adding: "There is a crisis and a very deep one. We didn't create this crisis or bring to this stage ... Those creating this crisis are responsible for fixing it."

The spokesman's remarks came hours after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan defied pleas from Brussels to tone down his rhetoric, repeating accusations of European "nazism" and warning that his ministers would take their treatment by the Dutch to the European court of human rights.

Erdoğan also accused Germany's Angela Merkel of "supporting terrorists" and criticised her for backing the Dutch in the row over Turkish campaigning abroad before an April referendum on controversial plans to expand his powers.

"Mrs Merkel, why are you hiding terrorists in your country? ... Why are you not doing anything?" Erdoğan said in an interview with Turkish television. He added that the position adopted by the Dutch and a number of other EU states amounted to nazism. "We can call this neo-nazism. A new nazism tendency."

Merkel had earlier pledged her "full support and solidarity" to the Dutch, saying allegations made twice by Erdoğan this weekend that the Dutch government was acting like Nazis were "completely unacceptable".

The Turkish remarks followed a request on Monday by the EU's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, and enlargement commissioner, Johannes Hahn, for Ankara to "refrain from excessive statements and actions".

It was "essential to avoid further escalation and find ways to calm down the situation", the two said in a joint statement. Jens Stoltenberg, Nato's secretary general, urged all concerned to "show mutual respect and be calm".

Turkey's minister for EU affairs, Ömer Çelik, said sanctions against the Netherlands were now likely. "We will surely have sanctions against the latest actions by the Netherlands. We will answer them with these," he said.

The Turkish justice minister, Bekir Bozdağ, said the country would "not allow anyone to play with the honour of the Turkish nation and Turkish state", while Nurettin Canikli, another deputy prime minister, described Europe as a "very sick man".

The threat to re-evaluate the deal the EU signed with Ankara in March 2016 that has successfully curbed migration from Turkey to Greece, then onward into the rest of the bloc, will be seen as particularly alarming.

Dutch police used dogs and water cannon on Sunday to disperse demonstrators after Turkey's family minister, Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya, was escorted out of the country and the foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, denied permission to land. The ministers were due to address a rally for some of the 400,000 Turks living in the Netherlands, many of whom are able to vote in the 16 April referendum.

Daan Feddo Huisinga, the Dutch chargé d'affaires in Ankara, was summoned to the foreign ministry on Monday to receive formal protests over the "disproportionate, inhumane and humiliating" treatment of the protesters and the improper reception given to the ministers.

The Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Denmark and Switzerland – all of which have large Turkish immigrant communities – have cited security and other concerns as reasons not to allow Turkish officials to campaign in their countries. But with as many as 1.4 million Turkish voters in Germany alone, Erdoğan cannot afford to ignore the foreign electorate.

The standoff has further strained relations already frayed over human rights, while repeated indications from Erdoğan that he could personally try to address rallies in EU countries risk further inflaming the situation.

The row also looks likely to dim further Turkey's prospects of joining the EU, a process that has been under way for more than 50 years. "The formal end of accession negotiations with Turkey now looks inevitable," the German commentator Daniel Brössler wrote in the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Austria's chancellor, Christian Kern, called on Monday for an EU-wide ban on Turkish rallies, saying it would take pressure off individual countries. But Merkel's chief of staff, Peter Altmaier, said that while accession talks could be halted, he had doubts as to whether the bloc should collectively decide on a rally ban.

Analysts said the Turkish president was using the crisis to show voters that his strong leadership was needed against a Europe he routinely presents as hostile.

Erdoğan is "looking for 'imagined' foreign enemies to boost his nationalist base in the runup to the referendum," said Soner Cagaptay, the director of the Turkish Research Programme at the Washington Institute.

Marc Pierini, the EU's former envoy to Turkey, said he saw no immediate solution to the crisis because "the referendum outcome in Turkey is very tight and the leadership will do everything to ramp up the nationalist narrative to garner more votes".

In the medium term, Pierini said: "One can hope the fever will subside. Yet bridges have been burned at a personal level: using a 'Nazi' narrative is extreme ... and will probably prevent any summit meeting between the EU and Turkey for a while." Erdoğan last week accused Germany of "Nazi practices" after Çavuşoğlu was banned from speaking at a rally in Hamburg.

The Turkish president twice made the same claim of the Dutch on Saturday, describing them as "Nazi remnants" and telling a rally in Istanbul: "I thought nazism was over, but I was wrong. In fact, nazism is alive in the west."

Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, who faces a strong far-right challenge in this week's parliamentary elections and showed little desire to appease Turkey, demanded an apology for Erdoğan's "totally unacceptable" jibe.

Denmark has also postponed a planned visit next weekend by the Turkish prime minister, Binali Yıldırım, saying the meeting could not be seen as "separate from the current Turkish attacks on Holland".

European states are not entirely united: Çavuşoğlu himself called off a planned visit to Switzerland, despite the Swiss federal government saying there was "nothing to justify" cancelling it, after Zurich police expressed security concerns.

The French government also allowed Çavuşoğlu to address a rally in Metz on Sunday, but was strongly criticised by opposition politicians, who accused it of "flagrantly breaking with European solidarity" on the issue.

I find it adorable how they talk about how this conflict might hurt Turkey's chances of getting into the EU. Is somebody still seriously considering it a realistic thing?

[Razgovory]

Why would anyone want to join the EU?  Looks like it's closing up shop anyway.

[Grinning_Colossus]

Turkey is, by treaty, guaranteed to get into the EU sometime between now and the end of time. My guess is that it will be after all of this Islamism business blows over.

[Syt]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/14/turkish-sanctions-bizarre-as-netherlands-has-more-to-be-angry-about-dutch-pm

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: 'We know Dutch from Srebrenica massacre'

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has held the Netherlands responsible for the worst genocide in Europe since the second world war as the row over Turkish ministers addressing pro-Erdoğan rallies in the country deepened.

In a speech televised live on Tuesday, Erdoğan said: "We know the Netherlands and the Dutch from the Srebrenica massacre. We know how rotten their character is from their massacre of 8,000 Bosnians there."

The comments followed Turkey's suspension of diplomatic relations with the Netherlands on Monday and Erdoğan twice describing the Dutch government as Nazis on Saturday after his foreign minister and family affairs minister were prevented from attending rallies.

The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, faces a general election on Wednesday in which the far-right leader, Geert Wilders, could win the largest number of seats. Rutte earlier on Tuesday played down the impact of Turkey's diplomatic sanctions, which he said were "not too bad" but were inappropriate as the Netherlands had more to be angry about.

However, after Erdoğan's speech Rutte told the Dutch TV channel RTL Nieuws that Erdoğan "continues to escalate the situation", adding the Srebrenica claim was "a repugnant historical falsehood".

"Erdoğan's tone is getting more and more hysterical, not only against The Netherlands, but also against Germany," he said. "We won't sink to that level and now we're being confronted with an idiotic fact ... It's totally unacceptable."

Turkey is holding a referendum on 16 April on extending Erdoğan's presidential powers where the votes of Turkish citizens in EU countries will be crucial.

Erdoğan's decision to use the Srebrenica genocide, for which a previous Dutch government resigned over its failure to prevent, as a further attack on the Netherlands showed that Ankara does not intend to back down from the dispute.

A lightly armed force of 110 Dutch troops failed to prevent a Bosnian Serb force commanded by Gen Ratko Mladić entering what had been designated a safe haven on 11 July 1995. Muslim men and boys were rounded up, executed and pushed into mass graves.

The former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić was found guilty of genocide over the massacre by the UN tribunal in March 2016 and sentenced to 40 years in jail.

Erdoğan said in his speech he would not accept an apology from the Netherlands over the treatment of the ministers and suggested that further action could be taken.

He accused the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, of attacking Turkey the same way that Dutch police used dogs and water cannon to disperse protesters outside the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam. Erdoğan said Merkel was "no different from the Netherlands", and urged emigre Turks not to vote for "the government and the racists" in upcoming European elections.

Erdoğan had on Monday defied pleas from Brussels to tone down his rhetoric, repeating accusations of European "nazism" and saying his ministers would take their treatment by the Dutch to the European court of human rights.

The Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that the EU's stance on Turkey was short-sighted and "carried no value" for Turkey. It said the EU had "ignored the violation of diplomatic conventions and the law".

The Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Denmark and Switzerland, all of which have large Turkish immigrant communities, have cited security and other concerns as reasons not to allow Turkish officials to campaign in their countries in favour of a referendum vote. But with as many as 1.4 million Turkish voters in Germany alone, Erdoğan cannot afford to ignore the foreign electorate.

Austria's chancellor, Christian Kern, called on Monday for an EU-wide ban on Turkish rallies, saying it would take pressure off individual countries. But Merkel's chief of staff, Peter Altmaier, said he had doubts as to whether the bloc should collectively decide on a rally ban.

Analysts said the Turkish president was using the crisis to show voters that his strong leadership was needed against a Europe he routinely presents as hostile.

Erdoğan was "looking for 'imagined' foreign enemies to boost his nationalist base in the run-up to the referendum", said Soner Çağaptay, the director of the Turkish research programme at the Washington Institute.

Marc Pierini, a former EU envoy to Turkey, said he saw no immediate solution to the crisis. "The referendum outcome in Turkey is very tight and the leadership will do everything to ramp up the nationalist narrative to garner more votes," he said.

The standoff has further strained relations already frayed over human rights, while repeated indications from Erdoğan that he could personally try to address rallies in EU countries risk further inflaming the situation.

The row looks likely to dim further Turkey's prospects of joining the EU, a process that has been under way for more than 50 years. "The formal end of accession negotiations with Turkey now looks inevitable," the German commentator Daniel Brössler wrote in Süddeutsche Zeitung.

[DontSayBanana]

Hey Syt, wanna place a wager on how long it takes before the Dutch lose their cool and fire back with something about the Armenian Genocide?

[Maladict]

Hey Syt, wanna place a wager on how long it takes before the Dutch lose their cool and fire back with something about the Armenian Genocide?

Turkish referendum is today, this thing has already run its course.
At least I hope so for Turkey's sake, what with the Netherlands being the #1 foreign investor in Turkey.

[Syt]

Hey Syt, wanna place a wager on how long it takes before the Dutch lose their cool and fire back with something about the Armenian Genocide?

Turkish referendum is today, this thing has already run its course.
At least I hope so for Turkey's sake, what with the Netherlands being the #1 foreign investor in Turkey.

I think it's April 16th, no?

[Maladict]

I think it's April 16th, no?

You're right 
More shenanigans, then.

[Duque de Bragança]

More fun and games in the Balkans thanks to Herr Dogan!

Bulgaria president lashes Turkey vote 'interference'
AFP on March 18, 2017, 8:30 am
Bulgaria president lashes Turkey vote interference
Bulgaria president lashes Turkey vote 'interference'
SHARE   TWEET   EMAIL 
Sofia (AFP) - Bulgarian President Rumen Radev on Friday accused neighbouring Turkey of "interference" in the country's March 26 general elections and warned his government would not accept it.

"Turkey is our neighbour, friend and partner and we insist on developing good neighbourly relations," Radev told public BNT television on Friday.

"But Turkey's interference in our elections is a fact, and this interference is inadmissible."

The statement came after over a week of escalating tensions between the two countries.

Bulgaria is angered at Turkey's open support for Dost, a party for the ethnic Turkish minority, which is running in the general elections for the first time.

The government in Sofia summoned Turkey's ambassador and recalled its own envoy from Turkey for consultations on Thursday.

Radev called for "more calm and de-escalation of emotions" but also warned Bulgaria was vigilant.

"Bulgaria's institutions and relevant services are actively working on eliminating all interference in our electoral process and our internal affairs," he said.

Separately, Bulgaria's intelligence service, DANS, on Friday said that one Turkish national had been expelled and two more banned from entering or residing in the country.

One of the men was inciting anti-Bulgarian feelings in regions with a mixed Bulgarian and Turkish population, it said.

The long-time leader of the main MRF Turkish minority party in Bulgaria, Ahmed Dogan, lashed out against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday, calling his April 16 referendum on expanding the president's powers "madness."

Bulgaria is home to a 700,000-strong ethnic Turkish minority, a legacy of the Ottoman empire.

An additional 200,000 ethnic Turks with Bulgarian passports, who left Bulgaria during the Communist era, reside in Turkey and a third of them regularly take part in Bulgaria's elections.

Relations between ethnic Bulgarians and Turks have been peaceful, but many in the Turkish minority have bitter memories of assimilation policies from the Communist era, when the authorities forced them to adopt Slavic names.

Tensions between the two neighbouring countries also come at a time of a wider row between Ankara and the European Union ahead of the Turkish referendum, with a number of countries preventing Turkish ministers from attending referendum rallies.

Turkey has blasted German and Dutch politicians as "Nazis" and threatened to scupper a 2016 deal with the EU to brake the flow of migrants entering the bloc.

The row could be a major problem for Bulgaria, the EU's poorest country, since it shares a 270-kilometre (165-mile) border with its southeastern neighbour, Radev said Friday.

"Escalation of the tensions along the EU-Turkey axis will rebound most powerfully on Bulgaria, because we are on the front line," he warned, urging the EU to find a solution that guarantees the security of all member-states.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/34691061/bulgaria-president-lashes-turkey-vote-interference/#page1

[Syt]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/world/europe/rex-tillerson-turkey.html

Rex Tillerson's Praise for Turkey Is Met With a List of Complaints

ANKARA, Turkey — Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson showered praise on Turkey's government on Thursday, despite what some international critics see as a slide toward authoritarianism, and in response he got an earful of grievances from Turkish officials.

Mr. Tillerson's visit to Ankara, the Turkish capital, was intended to reassure a NATO ally in the fight against the Islamic State and a regional bulwark against a resurgent Iran.

Turkish officials have repeatedly protested United States support for and reliance on Kurdish forces in the fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria at the same time the Turks are waging a campaign against Kurdish militants inside Turkey.

Mr. Tillerson was vague on Thursday when discussing American support for the Kurds, saying only that there were "difficult choices that have to be made."

Standing beside Mr. Tillerson on Thursday, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Turkey expected the United States to cut off aid to Kurdish forces fighting the Islamic State, and that American law enforcement should arrest a Turkish cleric living in Pennsylvania whom the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused of orchestrating a coup attempt last July. "We are expecting better cooperation," Mr. Cavusoglu said.

He accused the former United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, who was recently fired by the Trump administration, of being a pawn of anti-Turkish forces, and he said a federal investigation into businessmen with ties to Mr. Erdogan was "political." Prosecutors in New York are pursuing a case against Reza Zarrab, a Turkish gold trader accused of violating sanctions on Iran. Mr. Bharara, asked for comment on Mr. Cavusoglu's criticism, said in a statement, "I am not going to comment on false and silly political propaganda by a foreign official regarding a case that I no longer oversee."

At the news conference in Turkey on Thursday, Mr. Cavusoglu also questioned Mr. Tillerson's truthfulness when the secretary of state said that a phone call made by someone in the United States Consulate to a coup plotter days after the failed attempt — a phone record was leaked to the Turkish news media just hours before Mr. Tillerson's arrival in Turkey — had been intended solely to inform the man that his request for a visa had been denied.

Turkish news media has suggested that the call showed collusion between American officials and people the Turkish government accuses of trying to oust Mr. Erdogan. "Of course we want to believe this explanation," Mr. Cavusoglu said. "And we don't want to look for anything behind that. But of course we'd like to see the details in concrete terms."

Although Mr. Tillerson said he would convey Turkey's concerns to the White House for further consultation, United States officials have said that the Trump administration intends to continue support for Kurdish forces and that there are no plans to arrest or extradite the cleric in Pennsylvania, Fethullah Gulen.

Mr. Tillerson has said that the Trump administration's top priority in the Middle East is the defeat of the Islamic State, and he steered clear of any mention of mass arrests, a crackdown on the news media and a widespread purge undertaken by the Turkish government after the coup attempt. Nor did he speak about a referendum scheduled for next month that could bestow nearly dictatorial powers on Mr. Erdogan.

Before arriving in Turkey, Mr. Tillerson decided to lift all human rights conditions on a major sale of F-16 fighter jets and other arms to Bahrain in an effort to bolster Sunni Arab states in the Middle East and find new ways to confront Iran. Similarly, he is expected to reverse a decision to ban sales of smart bombs to Saudi Arabia because of the kingdom's involvement in the war in Yemen.

Those decisions come as indications are mounting that the United States military is deepening its involvement in a string of complex wars in the Middle East that lack clear endgames and where there are alarming civilian casualties. These decisions have been welcomed by some Sunni Arab governments, which bristled at the Obama administration's skepticism of their tactics, motives and records on human rights.

[Zanza]

And Turkey abolished their last remaining republican division of powers and introduced a dictatorship with a referendum yesterday that the government supposedly won, but that international observers see very critical with regards to fairness.