Archive for the ‘Erdogan’ Category

Sparks between Turkey and Holland as Erdogan calls the Dutch ‘Nazi remnants’ – Telegraph.co.uk

The escalating dispute between Natoallies Turkey and the Netherlands hit a new low in the early hours of Sunday, with a Turkish minister escorted out of the country as persona non grata, less than a day after Turkey's foreign minister was denied entry, prompting president Recep Tayyip Erdoan to call the Dutch "Nazi remnants."

Mr Erdoan reacted furiously to Holland's decision prevent his foreign minister from entering the country in order to hold a pro-government rally with Turkish citizens living in Rotterdam.

"They are very nervous and cowardly. They are Nazi remnants, they are fascists," the Turkish leader told a crowd of his supporters in Istanbul.

Hours later, Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya, Turkey's family and social policies minister, had arrived in the country from Germany but was prevented from entering her country's diplomatic compound in Rotterdam, setting up an extraordinary standoff with armed police. She was later sent under escort back to Germany.

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Sparks between Turkey and Holland as Erdogan calls the Dutch 'Nazi remnants' - Telegraph.co.uk

Turkey’s Erdogan vows to continue attacking Kurds in northern Syria – ARA News

People of Sere kaniye in Syria's Hasakah province bidding farewell to Kurdish YPG fighters killed in clashes with ISIS. Photo: ARA News

ARA News

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan on Sunday said in a speech in which he criticized the Dutch government, that Turkey will still attack the town of Manbij, whichwas previously liberated from ISIS by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

We wont allow a terror state, controlled by the PKK and YPG, to be established in northern Syria, he said.

After Jarablus, Dabiq and Al-Bab, now its Manbijs turn, he added.

Moreover, the Turkish president said following his meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday, that Turkey wants to work with Russia and the US-led coalition in Manbij, requesting help to remove the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) from Manbij.

We, as Turkey and Russia, want to cooperate with the coalition forces there, he said.If the Coalition powers are with us, we can take out YPG from Manbij.

Our people [Turks] in the Netherlands] are under attack. Thats why we should attack Afrin, Kobane, Qamishlo, Manbij, and Tal Abyad pro-Turkish government reporter Yilmaz Bilgen said on Saturday.

Speaking to ARA News by phone from Qamishli, Sihanouk Dibo, the presidential adviser to the Democratic Union Party (PYD), said that it isunlikely that Russia or the US-led coalition will stoptheirsupport tothe SDF in Manbij.

It seems there is one policy in the international community, he said. They are all against terrorism and support the SDF and Syrian Democratic Council project.

Moreover, Diboconfirmed that until now the Syrian Kurdish representative office in Moscow led by Rodi Osman has not been closed.

Nawaf Xelil, a Kurdish analyst and former official from the Democratic Union Party (PYD), told ARA News that the Erdogan-Putin meeting should be understood in the context of Turkeys difficulties in al-Bab, where they and their allies were bogged down for months.

In my opinion, the Americans and Russians will not allow Turkey [to assault Manbij], because all Syriacs, Arabs and Kurds are united in the Syrian Democratic Forces, he reasoned. Turkey knows the United States will not change its plans.

Xelil added that the SDF are now on the banks of the Euphrates River [] 8 kilometers from Raqqa, and they have cut the roads between Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, the Islamic States (ISIS) largest urban strongholds.

In contrast, the Kurdish analyst believes that Turkey is being considered asineffective, placing itself in a bad situation, with bad relations with its neighbors and the West.

Turkey is in a weak position, it has bad relations with Iraq, Syria, Iran, Germany, and now also Holland is telling Turkey to not make propaganda there [for the April presidential referendum], Xelil told ARA News.

Recently, the Netherlands did not allow the Turkish Foreign Minister to campaign for the Turkish presidential referendum on Saturday, and also deported a Turkish minister from the country.

The countries in the European Union, such as Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Norway are unhappy with Turkey and its Middle East policy, Sihanouk Dibo said.

Previously, a UN report showed how the AKP is against the Kurdish people in North Kurdistan. TheUNstance is that Turkeyspolicy is wrong, he added. They should accept the federal project in northern Syria.

Reporting by: Wladimir van Wilgenburg | Source: ARA News

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Turkey's Erdogan vows to continue attacking Kurds in northern Syria - ARA News

Dutch Ban Turkish Official From Entry, Erdogan Hits Back …

Supporters of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan walk to the Dutch consulate in Istanbul on Saturday. Turkey and the Netherlands escalated their spat on Saturday as the Dutch withdrew landing permission for the Turkish foreign minister's plane. Emrah Gurel/AP hide caption

Supporters of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan walk to the Dutch consulate in Istanbul on Saturday. Turkey and the Netherlands escalated their spat on Saturday as the Dutch withdrew landing permission for the Turkish foreign minister's plane.

Tensions ramped up quickly between Turkey and the Netherlands Saturday, after the Dutch government not only disallowed Turkey's foreign minister from holding a public rally in the country, but revoked his flight permit to even land there.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan fumed about the Dutch government after the news, while speaking to a crowd in Istanbul.

"They are very nervous and cowardly. They are Nazi remnants, they are fascists," Erdogan said, according to The Daily Telegraph.

He also suggested that Turkey may bar Dutch diplomatic flights from landing in his country as retaliation.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte responded to journalists, while he campaigned on Saturday. The Netherlands will hold a national election on March 15.

"It's a crazy remark of course," Rutte said. "I understand they're angry, but this of course was way out of line."

The dust-up began because Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was planning to hold a rally for Turkish expatriates in support of Erdogan in Rotterham, a city near the coast of southern Holland.

Turkey is holding a referendum vote in April on increasing the president's power, and many expatriates living throughout the European Union still have voting rights. As of 2015, there were about 75,000 Turkish nationals living in the Netherlands.

Officials in Rotterham wanted the Turkish foreign minister to meet with supporters in private because of potential unrest, reports Teri Schultz:

"But even before these negotiations were completed, the Dutch foreign ministry says, (Turkey) started threatening sanctions against the Netherlands, which made it impossible to find a compromise and thus landing rights for Cavusoglu's plane were withdrawn."

In response, Turkey's Family Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya decided to go to Rotterham by road from Germany. She said on Twitter that she was stopped about 100 feet from the Turkish consulate in Rotterham, and prevented from entering the building, according to Reuters.

And Saturday evening, the Dutch Embassy in Ankara and its consulate in Istanbul were closed off by Turkish authorities for security reasons, according to a Turkish foreign ministry official who spoke with the AP through customary anonymity.

Recently, a similar yet milder tension arose between Turkey and Germany as well.

The German government canceled a rally by a Turkish minister citing security reasons, as reported by NPR, and President Erdogan responded by saying the practices were "no different than the Nazi ones of the past."

Erdogan also appeared to threaten the Germans, saying, "If you don't let me in, or if you don't let me speak, I will make the whole world rise up."

In Germany, there are about 1.5 million Turkish expatriates that can vote on the April referendum.

If passed, the referendum would give the Turkish president the ability to impose a state of emergency and to intervene within the judicial system. The referendum would also set a schedule of elections that could allow Erdogan to stay in power until 2029. He first became leader of the country in 2002.

"Yes" voters argue that the new rules would modernize a Turkish constitution that was put in place after a military coup in 1982, reports NPR's Peter Kenyon. "No" supporters say it would give other branches of government very little power to counter the president.

"It [would be] a strong presidency, nothing like any president of the United States has ever experienced," one political scientist, Ersin Kalaycioglu, told Kenyon. "If this amendment carries, then for a while, Turkey will have a system with very little, if any, checks and balances, as far as many of the experts can see."

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Erdogan Calls Dutch ‘Nazi Remnants’ After Turkish Minister Is Barred – New York Times


New York Times
Erdogan Calls Dutch 'Nazi Remnants' After Turkish Minister Is Barred
New York Times
In response, Mr. Erdogan compared the Dutch to fascists and Nazi remnants, echoing the description he used for the Germans last Sunday, after two Turkish politicians scrapped rallies in Germany when the government said their safety could not ...
Dutch police break up pro-Erdogan protestBBC News
Dutch Ban Turkish Official From Entry, Erdogan Hits Back With 'Nazi' CommentNPR
Turkey's Erdogan Calls Dutch `Fascists' After Minister GroundedBloomberg
Telegraph.co.uk -The Guardian
all 338 news articles »

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Erdogan Calls Dutch 'Nazi Remnants' After Turkish Minister Is Barred - New York Times

Erdogan is sympathetic to ISIS and Al-Nusra: Assad – AMN Al-Masdar News (registration)

BEIRUT, LEBANON (10:45 A.M.) Chinas Phoenix TV interviewed Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad on Saturday morning to discuss several topics related to his country and region.

During the interview, the Chinese journalist asked the Syrian President what his thoughts were regarding the trilateral meeting taking place between military officials from the U.S., Turkey, and Russia.

The Syrian President responded that the meeting itself was not objective because there is at least one party, which is Turkey, that is sympathetic to the Islamic State (ISIS).

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Yeah, if you want to link that meeting with ISIS in particular, it wont be objective because at least one party, which is Turkey, has been supporting ISIS till this moment, Assad asserted on Saturday morning.

Because Erdogan, the Turkish President, is Muslim Brotherhood. Hes ideologically linked and sympatheti with ISIS and with Al-Nusra. Everybody knows about this in our region and he helped them either through armaments, logistics, and exporting oil, Assad added.

Tensions between Turkey and Syria were believed to be improved up until recently, when the Turkish Armed Forces carried out sporadic attacks against the Syrian Arab Army in northeast Aleppo.

ALSO READ Kurdish forces liberate more territory en route to Raqqa City

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Erdogan is sympathetic to ISIS and Al-Nusra: Assad - AMN Al-Masdar News (registration)