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BERLIN Members of Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition party said on Tuesday they were optimistic that a majority of Turks would vote against expanding the powers of President Tayyip Erdogan in an April 16 referendum.

"Many Europeans here unfortunately think that Erdogan is invincible, but he is stoppable," Hisyar Ozsoy, a Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) member of Turkey's parliament, said after meeting with German lawmakers.

Ozsoy, one of four HDP lawmakers visiting the German parliament this week, said he hoped that the importance of the proposed constitutional change would help boost voter turnout in Turkey and among Turks living in the diaspora in Europe.

The German government said on Tuesday it would allow 1.4 million Turks who live in Germany and are eligible to vote to cast their ballots at 13 voting sites between March 27-April 9.

Tensions between the two NATO allies have spiked since Turkey arrested a German-Turkish journalist last month, and after Erdogan accused Germany of "fascist actions" after local officials canceled some rallies in support of the referendum.

Experts say about 60 percent of Turkish voters casting polls in Germany backed Erdogan's AKP party in the last presidential election, and the vote could turn out similarly this time.

But Ozsoy cited growing concerns among Turks from across the political spectrum about the proposed changes, which he said would "turn Turkey into a dictatorship".

Turkey's parliament last month stripped one of the HDP's two leaders of her status as a member of parliament and jailed the other. The HDP, the second-largest opposition party, says 13 of its lawmakers have been jailed, and as many as 5,000 of its members have been detained.

Erdogan says the constitutional changes will give Turkey stronger leadership. But the HDP and the main opposition secular CHP say it will lead to a one-man rule and erode basic freedoms.

Erdogan and the government say the HDP is an affiliate of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged an armed insurgency in Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast for more than three decades. The HDP denies direct links to the PKK, which is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Germany has been sharply critical of Turkey's moves to arrest 40,000 people and dismiss or suspend more than 100,000 from the military, civil service and private sector following a failed coup in July.

Sevim Dagdelen, a member of the Left party in Germany's parliament who is of Turkish background herself, said many Turkish voters in Germany would have to travel long distances to participate, which could affect turnout.

People who are not on online lists of eligible voters would also have to go through additional cumbersome steps to get registered, she said.

Kirsten Luehmann, a member of the Social Democrats in Germany, lauded Ozsoy and the other Turkish lawmakers for continuing to fight for democracy.

"They are going back to Turkey this week, despite the fact that they don't know if they will be arrested," she said. "I admire their courage to stand up for democracy in Turkey."

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Catherine Evans)

SEOUL A U.S. policy of strategic patience with North Korea has ended, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in South Korea on Friday, adding that military action would be "on the table" if North Korea elevated the threat level.

BEIJING China will begin preparatory work this year for an environmental monitoring station on Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, an official said, as two U.S. senators introduced a bill to impose sanctions on its activities in the disputed waterway.

MANILA The Philippines derided the European parliament on Friday for interfering in its affairs after it issued a resolution calling for the release of a top critic of the president's war on drugs, which it said should target narcotics networks instead of users.

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Erdogan is 'stoppable,' pro-Kurdish lawmakers say - Reuters

GETTY

The worrying advice has been called weeks ahead of a Turkish referendum aimed at giving more power to President Erdogan - and in the midst of a keeping fallout between Ankara and EU leaders.

Hayrettin Karaman, the Turkish AK Partys go-to religious leader, attacked the West in a letter which insisted Erdogan should immediately invest in weapons of mass destruction.

In the online post the imam accused Christian countries in the West of egotism and racism - stating the bad attitude towards Turkey has been accelerated.

President Erdogan is in the midst of a deep fall out with European nations including Germany and the Netherlands after both countries banned rallies and kicked out his ministers who had sworn to campaign for his referendum.

GETTY

Mr Erdogan retaliated by comparing them to Nazis and protests were held outside the Dutch embassy in Ankara.

The fallout threatens the 5billion one-for-one migrant deal.

But, if Mr Erdogan listens to his favourite religious leader, the tensions could be ramped up even further.

GETTY

We need to look at inventing these weapons, not buying them, without losing any time and listening to the words and obstacles of the West

Hayrettin Karaman

In a post online Mr Karaman called for the swift development of nuclear weapons.

He wrote: Once upon a time, military forces are arrows and horses, and now weapons are effective weapons invented by the age of science and technology, especially nuclear, and are the means by which they can be used.

We need to look at inventing these weapons, not buying them, without losing any time and listening to the words and obstacles of the West.

We invent, balance, but do not use weapons of mass destruction unless it is necessary; the way of not using it is to have the enemy or stronger.

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The Imam launched a scathing attack on the United States and Europe - insisting modern day developments have been paid for by crimes of the past.

He said: When it comes to values such as human rights, conscience, morality, justice, everyone knows and sees that the West implements a very ugly double standard without being embarrassed and ignorant.

Today, the wealth that the West (including the United States) has is derived from the East more extensively through extortion and robbery (colonialism).

It is not even possible to account for the material and moral values that the West has inflicted on the East for its bloody material benefit.

Mr Karaman wrote the post for the Yeni afak Newspaper in his column titled What to do.

In his post the Imam referred to the West dismantling the great Ottoman Turks and digging up the roots of Islam.

YouTube

He said Turkey must fight fire with fire - and match the weaponry in Europe.

He said: The West relies on material and military power, not on the right, the law, the adjective, the power of contemporary values while doing what it wants to the East and especially the leading potential Turkey.

If you want to get rid of being an oppressed and victim of the East, your right to religion is not justified; You need to be stronger than your enemy, not when you are right, but when you are strong.

As the relationship between Washington and Ankara wavered in 2016, Nato nuclear weapons were in in Turkey were being moved to Romania, it was claimed,

According to a report by the Simson Center, since the Cold War, some 50 US tactical nuclear weapons have been stationed at Turkeys Incirlik air base, approximately 100 kilometres from the Syrian border.

But after the failed coup a removal project began, it was reported.

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NUCLEAR TURKEY? Imam close to Erdogan calls for weapons NOW amid tensions with EU - Express.co.uk

A man pulls a cart in front of a huge portrait of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Taksim Square in Istanbul on March 15, 2017. Photo: BULENT KILIC / AFP

ISATANBUL - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday said the EU has started a crusade against Islam with a ruling on Islamic headscarves and warned the Netherlands that Ankara was no longer a friend, in a worsening diplomatic crisis.

Turkey and the European Union are locked in their most explosive row in years after key EU members Germany and the Netherlands blocked Turkish ministers from holding rallies to win support for expanding Erdogan's powers in a referendum.

Ankara has expressed dismay over the rise of the anti-immigrant far-right in Europe but on Wednesday showed no pleasure over the election win of liberal Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, with the crisis showing no sign of abating.

READ:Dutch warn citizens in Turkey amid diplomatic tensions

Erdogan accused the EU's top court of starting a "crusade" against Islam after a ruling that allows European companies to ban employees from wearing religious or political symbols including the Islamic headscarf.

"The European Union's court, the European Court of Justice, my esteemed brothers, have started a crusade struggle against the (Muslim) crescent," Erdogan said in a televised speech.

"Europe is swiftly rolling back to the days before World War II," he added.

'Rutte same as Wilders'

In Wednesday's elections, Dutch voters returned Rutte's liberals to power seeing off a challenge from the party of anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders.

READ:Dutch far-right challenge falters as Rutte victorious

But with the acrimony that followed the blocking by the Dutch of Turkish ministers from holding political rallies still raging, Ankara said it saw no difference between the Dutch parties.

"Hey Rutte! You may have emerged as the number one party in the election but you must know that you have lost Turkey as your friend," Erdogan said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu earlier said there was "no difference" between the ruling Dutch liberals and the "fascist" Wilders.

Cavusoglu also predicted that "religious wars" will start in Europe due to the rise of the far right, saying the continent was being taken "to the cliff".

'Unacceptable remarks'

Erdogan has enflamed the row by repeatedly accusing Dutch and German politicians of acting like "Nazis". On Wednesday, he claimed the "spirit of fascism" was rampant in Europe.

Analysts say the Turkish strongman wants to be seen as standing up strongly to Europe in order to sweep up nationalist votes ahead of the April 16 referendum on the constitutional changes expanding his powers.

But his volcanic rhetoric has not gone down well in the EU and has raised questions about the continuation of Turkey's half century long bid to join the bloc.

The French and German leaders on Thursday condemned Erdogan's "unacceptable" remarks.

Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel "consider comparisons with Nazism and aggressive statements against Germany and other member states unacceptable", they said in a joint statement after speaking by telephone, the French president's office said.

'Implement migrant deal'

Turkey has also raised alarm in Brussels by threatening to unilaterally scrap a March 2016 deal that has substantially reduced the flow of migrants and refugees to the EU.

"We can stop it (the deal) unilaterally. We have not yet informed our (EU) counterparts, all of this is in our hands," Cavusoglu told 24 TV in an interview.

"From now on, we can say 'we will not apply it and it will be over'," he added.

READ:UN accuses Turkey security forces of serious abuses

He lambasted the EU for failing to allow Turks visa-free travel in return for the deal, an incentive that had been promised to Turkey if it fulfilled its side of the bargain.

The deal has been praised for preventing a repeat of the surge of migrants into Europe seen in 2015 that fanned the rise of the far-right.

The EU Commission said that it expected Turkey to implement the accord.

"This is an engagement of mutual trust and delivery and we expect that both sides will comply with their commitments," spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters.

Cavusoglu said Turkey was no longer implementing a key part of the deal, whereby it took back migrants who landed on the Greek islands as a deterrent.

AFP

15 March 2017

The EU comments came as Dutch voters went to the polls in a key test of right-wing populist strength ahead of elections in France and Germany later this year.

19 February 2017

Turkish officials repeated none of the gloom that some EU leaders expressed after Donald Trump's election, instead hoping that he would open a new page in relations.

12 February 2017

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Islamophobia "is the best support that Daesh can have to make its own propaganda,"

Link:
'You have lost Turkey as a friend' Erdogan tells Dutch PM - eNCA

With high-level diplomatic relations between Turkey and the Netherlands already frozen, Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed the Dutch for failing to prevent the killing of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims when Bosnian Serb forces overran the town in 1995. In a reference to Dutch United Nations peacekeepers who were on the ground and failed to prevent the mass killing, Erdogan said Tuesday: "We know the Dutch and the people in Holland from the massacre of Srebrenica. We know them, how they massacred people in Srebrenica full well. We don't need anyone to give us a lesson on civilization."

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte responded to the remarks, accusing Erdogan of "a disgusting falsification of history."

In an interview with Dutch broadcaster RTL, Rutte said: "[Erdogan] continues to push the limits. This is of unbelievably low quality and style. We are not going to reduce ourselves to this level. This is very unacceptable and extremely irritating."

The Turkish president's incendiary comments -- made during a speech in Ankara -- came amid an escalating row sparked by Turkish officials being blocked from addressing political rallies in the Netherlands.

Shortly after Cavusoglu was refused entry, the Dutch stopped Turkey's Family Affairs Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya from entering the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam. She was later escorted out of the country.

Violent clashes erupted after the action against the two ministers who had hoped to drum up support for an April 16 referendum to give greater powers to Erdogan.

Erdogan has already made angry remarks against the Dutch since the incidents in Rotterdam -- comparing the current government to Nazis.

The Netherlands lost more than 200,000 of its citizens when it was occupied by Nazi Germany in World War II and Rutte has demanded an apology.

On Monday, Turkey announced that it would not allow the Dutch ambassador to Ankara to return to Turkey and suspended high-level diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The growing tensions come ahead of the Dutch general election on Wednesday; far-right candidate Geert Wilders' anti-Islam, anti-EU Party for Freedom (PVV) is expected to make a strong showing.

Erdogan also implored Dutch voters of immigrant backgrounds not to cast their ballots for Wilders, who he described as an "extreme racist" or Prime Minister Rutte in Wednesday's election.

CNN's Rosalyn Saab, James Gray and Schams Elwazer also contributed to this report.

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Erdogan blames Dutch for Srebrenica - CNN.com

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday directed fresh verbal attacks at the Netherlands amid their growing diplomatic spat, holding the country responsible for Europe's worst mass killing since World War II.

In a televised speech, Erdogan referred to the massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, eastern Bosnia, in 1995, and blamed a Dutch battalion of United Nations peacekeepers who failed to halt the slaughter by Bosnian Serb forces.

Erdogan said: "We know the Netherlands and the Dutch from the Srebrenica massacre. We know how rotten their character is from their massacre of 8,000 Bosnians there."

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte condemned Erdogan's comments, calling them a "disgusting distortion of history."

"We will not lower ourselves to this level. It is totally unacceptable," Rutte told Dutch broadcaster RTL Z.

It was the latest in Erdogan's war of words on the Netherlands, which prevented two Turkish ministers from holding campaign rallies in the country over the weekend. The two ministers had sought to campaign for an April 16 referendum on expanding Erdogan's powers, courting the votes of eligible Turks in the Netherlands.

Around 400,000 people with ties to Turkey live in the Netherlands.

The Turkish leader previously called the Netherlands "Nazi remnants" and also accused it of "fascism."

Earlier, Turkey criticized the European Union for siding with the Netherlands in the row. In a statement Tuesday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said the EU's stance on Turkey was "short-sighted" and "carried no value" for Turkey, as well as lending "credence" to extremists.

The ministry argued that the European bloc had "ignored the (Netherlands') violation of diplomatic conventions and the law" after Dutch authorities escorted the Turkish family affairs minister out of the country and denied the foreign minister permission to land.

The diplomatic spat between the two countries escalated swiftly with Erdogan making several Nazi comparisons with EU member states Germany and the Netherlands. The EU has called on Turkey to cease "excessive statements."

The fight has raised concerns that cooperation between the EU and Turkey on a number of issues, such as dealing with the flow of migrants from war-torn Syria, may start to fray.

The tensions spilled over into the parliamentary election the Netherlands will be holding on Wednesday. The Dutch-Turkish leader of a pro-migrant political party pulled out of an election eve debate in the Netherlands on Tuesday.

National broadcaster NOS says Tunahan Kuzu of the Denk (Think) party he did not want to appear on the same stage as a right-wing populist.

During the nationally televised debate, the right-wing candidate, Jan Roos later called Kuzu a "lapdog of (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan" and his absence "cowardly and contemptuous of democracy."

On Monday, Turkey slapped a series of political sanctions against the Netherlands, including halting political discussions between the two countries and closing Turkish airspace to Dutch diplomats. Other sanctions bar the Dutch ambassador entry back into Turkey and advise parliament to withdraw from a Dutch-Turkish friendship group.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said the sanctions would apply until the Netherlands takes steps "to redress" the actions that Ankara sees as a grave insult.

Erdogan said Tuesday there could be more sanctions but did not elaborate. Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Turkey Customs and Trade Minister Bulent Tufenkci as saying economic sanctions "could come to the agenda in the period ahead."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also backed the Netherlands in its diplomatic fight with Turkey, pledging her full support and solidarity with the Dutch and saying the Nazi jibes were unacceptable.

Erdogan responded angrily to Merkel's support for the Netherlands, exclaiming "Shame on you!" during a television interview on Monday. On Tuesday, Erdogan described both Germany and the Netherlands as "bandit states" that were harming the European Union.

Merkel has refrained from reacting to Erdogan.

"The chancellor has no intention of participating in the race of provocations," Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said late Monday. "She won't play along. The accusations are recognizably absurd."

Responding to another charge by Erdogan that Germany supported terror groups in Turkey German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said his country did not need "extra tuition" from Ankara on fighting terrorism.

Also Monday, the German Foreign Ministry amended its travel advice for Turkey, noting that "elevated political tensions and protests that could also be directed against Germany" should be expected during the referendum campaign. It recommended that travelers stay away from political events and large gatherings of people.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Rotterdam said that specialized armed security forces he sent to a standoff with Turkish Family Affairs Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya on Saturday night had permission to open fire, if necessary.

Speaking late Monday night on a television talk show, Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb said he sent the special armed intervention unit to the Turkish consulate amid fears that a 12-man security detail that had driven to the Netherlands from Germany with the minister could be armed.

Aboutaleb said it was important to "be sure that if it came to a confrontation that we would be the boss" and that the unit had been given "permission to shoot."

The Turkish minister was eventually escorted out of the Netherlands in the early hours of Sunday.

Earlier, the Dutch also had refused Turkey's foreign minister permission to visit. Both ministers wanted to address rallies about next month's constitutional reform referendum on giving President Recep Tayyip Erdogan more power.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte repeated Tuesday the last day of campaigning for Dutch elections that have been overshadowed by the diplomatic crisis that Dutch authorities are working to de-escalate tensions with Ankara.

Associated Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin and Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed.

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Turkey's Erdogan renews war of words on Netherlands - ABC News