Turkish FM to visit Rotterdam despite protests from Dutch government

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu will travel to Rotterdam in the Netherlands on March 11 for a "meeting with citizens" campaign event ahead of the April 16 referendum, despite continued opposition to the visit from the Dutch government.
Çavuşoğlu is likely to hold the event at the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam, as he did in Hamburg in Germany after permission for the hall was cancelled there.

He is also due on March 12 to go to Switzerland for a similar rally in Zurich. The Swiss Foreign Ministry stated that Çavuşoğlu's planned visit "does not currently pose a particularly high security threat" after a key regional authority expressed concerns. Çavuşoğlu may hold another rally in France after Switzerland. 

In addition, the planned meetings of Family and Social Affairs Minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya in the Netherlands and Germany were also canceled March 9 due to "security reasons," notified by the authorities.
Kaya was due to address meetings of the Turkish community in the Dutch towns of Hengelo, Enschede and Wehl, as well Germany's Cologne.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on March  9 that they do not want Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu to hold rallies. 

"Apart from arresting a Turkish minister on arrival in the Netherlands," the Dutch government is giving the strongest possible hints to Ankara to not send its representatives to address any rallies on the upcoming Turkish referendum, Rutte said, adding that any planned weekend visit by the Turkish foreign minister could only stir trouble between the NATO allies.      

"This is the most serious thing we can do, to tell the foreign affairs minister of a NATO ally: 'We know you will come to the Netherlands: Don't come,'" he said.

Rutte added that the...