Ankara disappointed with lack of support

At the same time as the European Union's foreign and security representative, Federica Mogherini, and Expansion Commissioner Johannes Hahn were making a joint statement over the tension between Turkey and the Netherlands on March 13, Turkish EU Affairs Minister Ömer Çelik was staging a press conference in Ankara.

The reporters asked him about the EU stance asking Turkey to tone down its statements against the Netherlands, together with an earlier statement by Jens Stoltenberg, NATO's secretary general, who called on both of its members to avoid remarks that would escalate the situation.

Çelik did not hide his disappointment over those statements. Late on March 13, he called on the EU and the international community to stand by Turkey on its righteous position against the Netherlands on account of the fact that Dutch police denied Turkish Minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya from entering the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam late on March 11 before escorting her to Germany in the early hours of March 12.

Recalling the European Convention on Human Rights, Çelik accused Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte of falling into the trap of "racist" rival Geert Wilders, but did not raise the bar as much as Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, who called the Netherlands "the capital of fascism" in a speech he delivered to Turkish citizens in Paris late on March 12.

The remarks by the high-ranking EU officials came after the Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned the Dutch chargé d'affaires in Ankara to ask for a written apology. Even before the EU remarks, Rutte had already responded to Turkish demands ahead of his country's March 15 general elections, saying an apology would not come and that he would not talk to the Turks under such threats. He said the...