Turkish minister stopped at the border – was to run election campaign

RotterdamA police dog bites a demonstrator after riots broke out at the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Sunday, March 12, 2017. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was due to visit Rotterdam on Saturday to campaign for a referendum next month on constitutional reforms in Turkey. The Dutch government says that it withdrew the permission for Cavusoglu's plane to land because of "risks to public order and security." (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

A Turkish minister has been apprehended by the Rotterdam police after being stopped by Dutch border police earlier in the day, NTB reports citing Dutch TV.

Minister for Family and Social Affairs, Fatma Kaya, was according to the Turkish television station NTV stopped by the Dutch police as she attempted to cross the border from Germany Saturday.

A little later the Dutch state television station NOS notified that she was arrested by the police in Rotterdam.

Came from Germany

Kaya was in Germany on Saturday when she decided to leave for the Netherlands after the Dutch authorities had refused the plane with her government colleague, foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, to land in Rotterdam earlier the same day.
In a very surprising move, the Dutch authorities withdrew the Foreign Minister’s landing permit. Cavusoglu was to campaign for Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the Netherlands ahead of a controversial April referendum

.
Turkish citizens will vote whether President Erdogan will get expanded power or not. The apparatus around the powerful and increasingly nationalist president now runs an intense campaign ahead of the referendum, in which all Turkish citizens are eligible to vote.
There are many Turkish citizens who live both in the Netherlands and Germany live.
– Turkish authorities have threatened with sanctions. It makes it impossible to arrive at a solution. For this reason, the Netherlands has made it clear that the minister’s landing permit is withdrawn, Prime Minister for the Netherland’s Mark Rutte wrote in a message.
Before the planned trip Cavusoglus via CNN Turk warned that Turkey would impose heavy sanctions against the Netherlands if they refused the visit.

 

Source: Dagbladet / Norway Today