Ahmed Aboutaleb

Dutch police fired warning shots, injuring at least two people, after rioters against a partial Covid lockdown torched a police car and hurled stones in Rotterdam on Nov. 19.

Chaos broke out after a protest in the port city against the coronavirus restrictions and government plans to restrict access for unvaccinated people to some venues.

The mayor of Rotterdam says police in the port city stopped a van with Spanish license plates containing a number of gas bottles close to the venue of a concert by an American rock band that was cancelled following a threat, CNBC has reported.

Rotterdam's mayor gave his authorization on March 16 for a pro-Turkish protest against the Dutch police's handling of a violent demonstration in the port city on March 11.

The Istanbul Metropolitan Munipality city council on March 15 unanimously terminated its sister city protocol with the Netherland's port city Rotterdam, amid an ongoing diplomatic row between the two countries.

The move comes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Erdoğan said he ordered Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım to end the metropolis' sister city pact with 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 escalating dispute between NATO allies Turkey and the Netherlands hit a new low Sunday, with a Turkish minister escorted out of the country less than a day after Turkey’s foreign minister was denied entry, prompting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to call the Dutch “Nazi remnants.”

He is a Muslim of Moroccan origin. He was 15 years old when his family migrated to Holland. He has a bachelor?s degree in engineering but he was first a journalist before going into politics. He has double-citizenship; Moroccan and Dutch. Ahmed Aboutaleb is 53 years old; he has been the mayor of Rotterdam for six years.