Rotterdam

Turkey has announced an initial batch of sanctions against the Netherlands that largely focuses on the political and diplomatic sphere while also filing complaints at top international institutions on the grounds that the Dutch government violated the 1961 Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations with its actions against Turkish ministers. 

Turkey will apply to three high-level international organizations to complain about the Netherlands' alleged breach of the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations on late March 11 by detaining Turkey's chargé d'affaires and other diplomats and by temporarily seizing cars with diplomatic plates, diplomatic sources have said.

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.

''What is now happening in Rotterdam will not remain limited to the Netherlands and Germany'', said the expert Boyko Noev, during an interview with the Bulgarian National Radio, speaking about the Dutch-Turkish tensions over Turkey's referendum.

According to him, Bulgaria should make an active contribution into Europe's security using its geographic location and other advantages.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected as "completely unacceptable" comments by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan referring to the Netherlands as "Nazi remnants," telling a group of business leaders on March 13 that remarks invoking the Nazi past were misguided.

A leading business council has called for the diplomatic row between Turkey and the Netherlands to be resolved in diplomatic manners, voicing hopes for ties to normalize soon. 

Protests have been carried out by different groups in Turkey over the past two days against the Netherlands, amid escalating row between the two countries after a Turkish minister was barred from speaking at an event in Rotterdam. 

A shopkeeper in the Kahta district of the southeastern province of Adıyaman has filed a criminal complaint against the Netherlands's king, prime minister and other government officials after Turkish ministers were banned from entering the country, escalating tensions between the Netherlands and Turkey, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

The Netherlands on March 14 issued a new travel warning to Dutch citizens in Turkey, urging them to take care amid a bitter political row between the two countries.

"Since March 11, 2017 there have been diplomatic tensions between Turkey and The Netherlands. Stay alert across the whole of Turkey and avoid gatherings and crowded places," the foreign ministry said in its warning.

A row between Turkey and Netherlands that escalated over the latter's refusal to permit Turkish politics to hold rallies in the country has grown after Turkey issued two diplomatic notes to the Dutch envoy in Ankara amid calls from third parties for calm.