Turkish minister drops lawsuit against Dutch government: report

Turkish Minister Fatma Betul Kaya is dropping a lawsuit filed against the Netherlands, the Telgraaf reports based on information from a "highly placed" Turkish source. In the lawsuit she accused the Netherlands of illegally naming her an unwelcome foreigner and deporting her from the Netherlands in March. But according to the Telegraaf, the Turkish Minister eventually left the country of her own accord, which means there is no grounds for the lawsuit.

During the weekend of March 11th and 12th, the Dutch government refused Turkish ministers permission to campaign at the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam for a referendum that would give president Recep Tayyip Erdogan more power. Kaya nevertheless came to the Netherlands, but was refused entrance to the consulate. An hours long standoff ensued, with Kaya sitting in her car outside the consulate. She was eventually escorted to Germany by the Dutch police, resulting in riots from Turkish-Dutch who gathered at the consulate to hear her speak.

Kaya claimed that Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb gave the order for her to be illegally declared an unwelcome foreigner and deported.

Aboutaleb told NOS that the Dutch government gave the order to declare Kaya and any other Turkish minister unwelcome. But it never went that far, because Kaya eventually decided to leave, he said to the broadcaster. Sources in The Hague denied this to the Telegraaf. According to them, the cabinet should have given an official order, but that never happened.

Minister Kaya being escorted out of the Netherlands, and the riots that followed in Rotterdam, resulted in a political fallout between the Netherlands and Turkey. Erdogan accused the Netherlands of fascism, Nazism and mass murder at Srebrenica. Turkey also implemented a number of non-economic sanctions against the Netherlands. Erdogan eventually won the referendum with a very narrow majority.