The Dutch government on July 7 declared that Deputy Prime Minister Tuğrul Türkeş was not welcome to travel to the Netherlands for a ceremony among Turkish expatriates commemorating the July 15, 2016 failed coup attempt.
A statement by the Foreign Ministry said attendance by Türkeş or other members of Turkey’s government was undesirable “given the current circumstances in the bilateral relations between our land”.
Shortly before Dutch national elections in March, the Dutch authorities refused to allow Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Family Minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya to enter the country to campaign for the April 16 referendum on constitutional amendments.
The flight permit for Çavuşoğlu was canceled on March 11, while Rotterdam police barred Kaya’s entrance to the consulate building on the same day.
Kaya traveled to Germany with a police escort late on March 12.
The July 7 decision is a “natural consequence” of events in March, the statement by the Dutch Foreign Ministry said.
