Turkey presses Netherlands with sanctions, int’l actions

İstanbul, Mar 15 (DHA) - 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.

“After the steps taken in a cabinet meeting [late on Tuesday], there will be further steps in the pipeline,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a speech he delivered on the occasion of Doctors’ Day on Tuesday.

“Issuing an apology will not suffice. The Netherlands will be held to account for what it did,” Erdoğan said, in reference to the Dutch government’s use of force against the Turkish community in Rotterdam and the refusal to permit a Turkish minister to go to the Turkish consulate. Turkey demanded an official apology from the Netherlands through a diplomatic note issued on Tuesday.

Tension between Ankara and The Hague has escalated over the last week after the latter requested that Turkish ministers who wanted to campaign in the Netherlands on the eve of April 16 referendum not come until after Dutch general elections on Wednesday.

Turkey’s cabinet revealed a set of sanctions against the Netherlands which did not include economic measures. The sanctions include a ban on the Dutch ambassador and diplomatic flights from the Netherlands, as well as the cancelation of all high-level political meetings between the two parties.

“We are doing exactly what they did to us. We are not allowing planes carrying Dutch diplomats or envoys to land in Turkey or to use our airspace” Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş told a news conference after a cabinet meeting. “Those creating this crisis are responsible for fixing it.”

Kurtulmuş also said Turkey’s deal to stop the flow of migrants into Europe may need to be re-evaluated. He said high-level government meetings would be suspended between the two countries until the Netherlands atoned for its actions.

According to the information gathered, the Dutch Foreign Ministry verbally apologized for the detention of the Turkish diplomats during discussions between the two sides’ diplomats after the crisis. The Dutch police did not realize that they had diplomatic immunity because of the mayhem of the night, the Dutch Foreign Ministry explained to Ankara, according to Turkish sources.