Prime Minister Mark Rutte used the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg this weekend to speak with Russian president Vladimir Putin about the MH17 disaster and the decision to prosecute the perpetrators in the Netherlands under Dutch law, NOS reports.
diplomatic crisis
Jul 7 '17 08:57
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.
May 24 '17 09:16
The Dutch diplomatic network is in a "worrying state" and "urgently" needs to be strenghtened to avoid a diplomatic crisis, the advice council for international issues AIV said in a report on Wednesday. The new government will have to invest an extra 70 to 80 million euros annually into the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the report states according to ANP.
May 22 '17 08:02
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.
May 19 '17 12:10
Police officers in Rotterdam were threatened by supporters of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb wrote to the city council. According to him, there were "several signs of threat and intimidation" and these were mostly directed at officers with a Turkish background, RTL Nieuws reports.
Apr 12 '17 08:27
Turkish Minister of Family Affairs Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya is suing the Netherlands for expelling her from the country on March 12th, her lawyer Ejder Kose said to AD and confirmed to NOS. According to Kaya, the Dutch government failed to explain on what grounds she had to leave the country, which means that her expulsion was unlawful.
Apr 7 '17 14:30
At least ten, but maybe as many as 100, Turkish-Dutch are currently stuck in Turkey. They are not allowed to leave the country because they are critical about the Erdogan government, NOS reports based on its own sources. The Turkish government is furious about these reports. There are Dutch-Turks who are not allowed to leave the country, but that is because they have ties to the "terrorist" Gulen movement, the Turkish embassy said to the broadcaster.
Mar 23 '17 08:37
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan wanted to visit the Netherlands for a stadium-sized campaign event for a referendum that would give him more power, the Telegraaf reports. Turkish organizations tried to rent the Amsterdam ArenA, the Ziggo Dome or the Gelder Dome for the event, but all refused.
According to the newspaper, Erdogan was only willing to visit the Netherlands if he could arrange a meeting attended by tens of thousands of his supporters. He wanted it to be a "historic" meeting.
Mar 22 '17 16:10
The police department of the small American town of Rotterdam were surprised las week when one of their phone numbers suddenly received dozens of calls from furious Turks shouting, swearing or singing nationalist songs at them. It seems the town, with 29 thousand inhabitants and about 5,700 kilometers away from the Dutch Rotterdam, unwittingly became involved in the diplomatic fallout between the Netherlands and Turkey, the Telegraaf reports.
Mar 17 '17 07:45
A Dutch-Turkish protest planned in Rotterdam on Friday afternoon is canceled, the organizers announced on Facebook. They can't guarantee the safety of the participants and therefore feel it's better not to go through with it, AD reports.
The protest, "Solidarity for Turks", was to advocate for freedom of expression for Dutch-Turks in the Netherlands and against police violence during previous protests at the Turkish consulate this past weekend. Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb gave permission for the protesters to march from Central Station to Schouwburgplein between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
Mar 16 '17 14:55
Dutch-Turkish CDA councilor in Rotterdam Turan Yazir is taking a leave of absence from his faction due to threats.
Mar 15 '17 13:45
The Netherlands will not apologize to Turkey for the actions taken in Rotterdam on Saturday around the arrival of Turkish Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Mark Rutte said to Het Parool on Wednesday. "The actions taken on Saturday were firm and respectful."
Mar 14 '17 14:35
In a new verbal attack, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan holds the Netherlands responsible for the mass murder of thousands of Muslim men in Srebrenica in 1995. "We know the Dutch from the Srebrenica massacre", he said in a speech that was televised live in Turkey, according to the Volkskrant. "We know how rotten their character is due to their murder of 8 thousand Bosnians there."
Mar 14 '17 14:00
Turkish hacker groups targeted a large number of Dutch websites after the political fallout between the Netherlands and Turkey over the weekend. The NL Times website was also targeted.
NL Times was the victim of at least two DDoS attacks on Sunday and Monday, in an attempt to take the site offline, according to a Turkish-language Facebook group linked to cyber-attackers. In a DDoS attack, a large amount of traffic is sent to specific servers, causing them to crash.
