Turkish Minister denied access to Netherlands for attempted coup commemoration

The Dutch government decided that Turkish deputy prime minister Tugrul Türkes is not welcome in the Netherlands next week. He was planning to speak in the Orpheus congress center in Apeldoorn on Tuesday during a commemoration of the failed coup in Turkey last year, NOS reports.

"Given the current circumstances in the bilateral relationship between our countries", it is not desirable for Türkes or another member of the Turkish government to come to the Netherlands, the Dutch government decided.

This decision stems from a diplomatic fallout between the Netherlands and Turkey in March. Tensions ran high when the Dutch government denied Turkish officials access to the country to speak for a Turkish referendum. The situation resulted in riots in Rotterdam and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan accusing the Netherlands of Nazism, fascism and mass murder at Srebrenica in 1995.

According to the government, the decision not to allow Türkes into the country is "a logical consequence of the events in March".