Dutch police closed off the road in front of the Turkish consulate residence in Rotterdam after Turkish Minister of Family and Social Policy Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya announced she would travel to the city by car despite the fact that the Netherlands on Saturday canceled the flight clearance for Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu’s aircraft to land in Holland, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Saturday.
According to the report, Minister Kaya, who has been in Germany, will go to Rotterdam by car. Programs in which Kaya had planned to participate were previously cancelled.
Çavuşoğlu was scheduled to fly to Rotterdam on Saturday for a campaign rally, but the flight clearance for his airplane was canceled just hours before his flight.
Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb said on Friday that Çavuşoğlu would not be allowed to campaign for a referendum in Turkey during a visit to Rotterdam on Saturday.
Çavuşoğlu said Saturday during a live interview with CNNTürk that Turkey would impose sanctions on the Netherlands if the country were to cancel clearance for his flight later in the day.
“Now there is the Netherlands. Dutch [nationalist politician Geert] Wilders acts like a Nazi. He threatens the foreign minister of the Turkish Republic with not letting the airplane take off. But I will go today,” said Çavuşoğlu.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan threatened to refuse Dutch aircraft the right to land in Turkey.
“Don’t allow our foreign minister’s plane to go there as much as you want — let’s see how your planes will come to Turkey from now on. I am talking about diplomacy here, I am not talking about citizens’ travel. That is another issue, and we will assess that later on,” Erdoğan said during a speech in İstanbul’s Bağcılar district.