Sassounian: President Erdogan, a Menace to the World, Should be Stopped Before it’s Too Late

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become a serious danger not only to his own nation, but to many others as well. His actions and statements in recent years should seriously worry his neighbors and the entire world.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Photo: Michał Józefaciuk)

The last tyrant ignored by the international community was the genocidal butcher Adolf Hitler, who unleashed World War II, invading scores of countries and killing millions of people. Regrettably, Western leaders have tried to appease Erdogan, thereby creating a monster.

Strangely, some nations in the Islamic world have treated him respect, while many Western countries consider Turkey as one of their key allies. To make matters worse, Russia is also trying to win Erdogan over, to distance him from the West and NATO.

A vivid example of Erdogan’s unfit mental state is his recent bizarre public statement posted on the Turkish President’s website, titled “Turkey is the Standard-Bearer of the Global Fight for Justice.”

No one in their right mind would make such a deceptive statement. Turkey is the last country in the world to be described as “the standard bearer of the global fight for justice.” With hundreds of journalists and tens of thousands of professors, lawyers, judges, and public employees in jail, how can Erdogan make such a false claim? Besides the current injustices perpetrated on the Turkish people, Erdogan also denies massive past injustices such as the genocide against Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians.

Earlier this month, during a speech at his Justice and Development (AKP) Party’s Eskisehir Provincial Congress, Erdogan shamelessly announced: “Turkey is also the standard-bearer of the global fight for justice. Turkey is a safe haven for the oppressed and a nightmare for the oppressors.” If Turkey is such a “safe haven,” why so many Turks are trying to escape from the country and seeking asylum in Europe? Why is the Turkish government issuing arrest warrants for the escapees and pressuring European countries to extradite Turkish journalists, intellectuals and human rights activists?

Appointing himself as a world leader, Erdogan has cast a wide net, meddling in the internal affairs of many countries, near and far: “Turkey is the hope for our Crimean brothers and sisters, the oppressed of Turkestan [Turkic people in Central Asia] and our friends from Caucasia, Sarajevo and Africa.” Erdogan goes on to affirm: “If we stumble, Al-Quds [Jerusalem] will fall, Palestine, Rakhine [egin in Myanmar], and Somalia will fall.”

Several days after Erdogan’s pompous speech, Turkish opposition journalist Uzay Bulut wrote a critical commentary in the Washington Times, titled “Turkey’s Violence-Tinged Foreign Policy.”

Bulut reminds readers that “the Ottoman Empire’s occupation of vast lands and Islam’s flag of conquest still influence Turkey’s foreign policy, including its invasions and ethnic cleansings.”

The prominent Turkish commentator specifically cites Erdogan’s interventionist policies in Northern Syria (Afrin) and Cyprus. Bulut mentions that Turkey, having illegally occupied Northern Cyprus since 1974, now threatens what remains of the Republic of Cyprus. Erdogan declared: “Cyprus’ courage will only last ‘until they see our army, our ships and our planes.’” Turkey has ignored dozens of UN Security Council resolutions asking for the withdrawal of its troops from Northern Cyprus.

Erdogan also warned the European companies that are exploring gas fields in Eastern Mediterranean, in the territorial waters of the Republic of Cyprus. Bulut writes that earlier this month “Turkish warships blocked a rig belonging to the Italian energy firm ENI from reaching Cypriot waters to start exploring for gas.”

Erdogan admitted his expansionist policies drawing parallels between Afrin, Cyprus, and the Greek islands of the Aegean which are frequent targets of Turkish threats and demands. Erdogan brazenly declared: “Whatever Afrin is to us, our rights in the Aegean and Cyprus are the same. Do not ever think that the natural gas exploration in the waters of Cyprus and the opportunistic attempts in the Aegean Sea drop off from our radar.”

Going to more extremes, Yigit Bulut, one of Erdogan’s principal advisers, boastfully threatened Greece over the islet of Imia, which Turks call “Kardak.” He warned: “Athens will face the wrath of Turkey worse than that in Afrin. We will break the arms and legs of officials of the [Greek] Prime Minister and any minister who dares to step on the Kardak islet in the Aegean. There is not an armed force in this region that could contend against the Turkish armed forces. So, everyone will know their place. All imperialists will accept that the people in this land are Turks and the nation in this land is Islamic ummah [nation] and they will kiss the hand that they cannot bend.”

Commentator [Uzay] Bulut reported that Erdogan himself threatened Cyprus with yet another military invasion: “Just as we disrupt the plots [in Syria] through Operation Euphrates Shield and Operation Olive Branch, and soon in Manbij and other regions, we can and we will disrupt the plots of those who engage in miscalculations on our southern border. Our warships and air force are keeping an eye on the area in order to intervene in any way whenever required.”

Turkey’s neighbors should be aware that Erdogan is intending to recover the Ottoman territories. He openly threatened: “Those who think that we’ve erased from our hearts the lands from which we withdrew in tears a hundred years ago are wrong.”

At the end of her article, [Uzay] Bulut rightly points out that the Western countries are mostly responsible for Erdogan’s out of control behavior: “The global inaction in response to Turkish aggression encourages Mr. Erdogan, the president of a so-called ‘ally’ of the West, to threaten Cyprus with yet another military assault… What enables him to get away with his intimidating rhetoric and ongoing hostility is the apparent weakness and confusion of the West in the face of violent Turkish supremacism.”

Sumgait Pogroms by Azerbaijan Started a Pattern of Savagery that Continues Today

BY ANNA ASTVATSATURIAN TURCOTTE
Special to Asbarez

There is something liberating in telling a group of strangers about the most painful part of your life.  Your loved ones usually know what happened.  It is discussed once or twice but never repeated again, whether because it is uncommon in our Armenian culture to dwell on the painful past, or perhaps it is our pride – we are not very good at letting anyone know we are still haunted by the things that make us who we are.

I have been on the road for six years since the publication of my book, “Nowhere, a Story of Exile.” It is my voice at 11 to 14 years old; the years of my life when my innocence was lost and a sarcastic, jaded, resentful and hurt adolescent emerged, quiet in my own pain.  Alone, with my lined paper and a modest, yet cherished collection of new American BIC pens to use up on the manuscript, I channeled my loss.  Since publishing my book 20 years after I wrote it, I have been invited from the largest of Armenian communities to the smallest, to speak on the Capitol Hill and the European Parliament.

A house belonging to an Armenian family pillaged by Azeris in Sumgait in 1988

Non-Armenians who never heard of us hosted my presentations, and human rights activists whose work is inspired by the stories of victims reach out to me.  Dozens of refugees write me weekly to thank me, to tell me their stories, and to encourage me to keep going.  I continue to speak of my family’s collective pain and the pain of my people as a duty, to be the voice for the ones that cannot speak any longer, making my small contribution to the work of so many.  I should be satisfied by my work after six years.  But it’s far from it.

“You speak about these events so calmly,” I often hear from my audience members.  These kind people know there is more to my delivery and acknowledge a deep pain laced with a sense of duty. This duty is what drives me to leave my children at home with my husband, take vacation time from work, and travel to these often-obscure destinations to expose my soul to strangers.

Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte (center) with her parents in Baku

There is more, I think, thanking them but rarely breaking down.  The emotional part comes when I am alone, overwhelmed by the back-to-back presentations of mass murder, mutilation, exile, while most of the world around me is oblivious.  It is hidden in the nightmares and in the memories of an Azerbaijani neighbor whose skin I punched and scratched to escape an attempted rape in the patio of our apartment building as a 11-year-old child living in Baku.  I still get revolted by the smell of alcohol and smoke mixed together.  After it happened, I told my grandmother, but I did not reveal this to my parents. It would mean my father would retaliate, perhaps killing the man.  Then we would be killed.  For the next months as my parents were preparing to escape, the man whispered, “erməni” (Armenian), in the vilest manner every time he saw me on my way home or to school.  This neighbor in his mid-twenties, whose family was part of the Azerbaijani government, haunted my life since that day.  I barely mention it in my book and I often never speak about it publicly.  Yet, that is what makes me who I am.  And I am the lucky one who is alive, who wasn’t technically raped, whose family was beaten, exiled and terrorized for months, but lived.  Yet, I still can’t join peaceful and patriotic marches in America because of childhood trauma of being surrounded by marching thousands of violent men, the dark clothed masses of bloodthirsty thugs ready to kill me, an Armenian girl, had they known I was hiding in that first-floor apartment on Ahundov street.  And despite the Azerbaijani media mocking my truth, the truth is, I get startled if I hear Azerbaijani speech in close proximity to me physically.

The author with her mother in Baku

That is the curious case of our trauma.  Many times it isn’t visible.   Many times it isn’t about the numbers of the dead,  like a ghoulish competition; any life lost should be mourned.  It is about the systematic traumatization of the Armenian population of Azerbaijan through misinformation, infliction of fear and horror, exile and loss of property and, most importantly, in the manner in which these murders took place, and in the manner they were instantly forgotten.  It is in the psychological scars that were purposely inflicted with such hatred that it is nearly impossible to forget, and in most cases unimaginable to forgive.  Armenians received festive celebratory cards when tens of thousands of Armenians were killed in the Spitak earthquake.  Girls were raped in front of their parents, cigarettes were put out on their skins.  Armenian parents were murdered in front of their half-Azerbaijani children.

For nearly three decades my community hears things like, “Well, it isn’t exactly genocide,” or, “Yes, that was tragic, but weren’t only 30 or 200 killed?” And “perhaps it is time to forget it and move on.” This is what haunts us too; the deliberate obliviousness of the people that should be mourning with us, standing beside us, acknowledging us, and advocating for us.  When we ask why the world forgets our dead, we should also look in the mirror and ask ourselves the same question.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Sumgait massacres that shaped the lives of over 300,000 of us and the current Azerbaijani policy toward Armenians worldwide, especially toward Artsakh.  Since I began advocating for its liberation and tying the mass murders in Azerbaijan to the past genocide and mass atrocities of my grandfather’s time, I’ve seen progress.  There is more of an effort in diaspora organizations to remember Sumgait, Kirovabad, Baku and Maragha, along with the work toward Artsakh’s liberation.  But it is not enough.

Many still can’t distinguish between what Sumgait, Kirovabad and Baku atrocities are and how they occurred; especially what significance they have toward the liberation movement. These weren’t simply siloed events that one can easily compartmentalize, define or escape. Instead, the atrocities grew from one-off murders in the dark alleys, gradually building into mass demonstrations and pogroms like a tsunami, gathering force and momentum.  They were often masked as something else, somewhere else, before finally bursting with the Baku pogroms when the last of Armenian minority were killed, ferried across the Caspian or drowned at sea.  It was an inexorable two-year campaign of eliminating more than 300,000 Armenians; driving us all out of Azerbaijan.  And one atrocity, allowed by the powers at be, forgotten by the world, lead to another atrocity.  And the continued and deliberate ignorance of these tragic events by the world lead directly to the current situation in Artsakh when civilians are killed and mutilated in underreported war crimes, children are shot across the border on playgrounds, and young soldiers I often meet in my travels to the region lose their limbs and lives defending their families.

In these past six years of advocacy, I see more and more Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan spreading awareness.  Perhaps it is because the shellshock has an expiration date.  Julia Papiyan in Michigan comes to my mind; a daughter of a Baku survivor put so much of her effort into the building of a khatchkar in memory of the Armenians killed in Azerbaijan.  Arevik Makasdjian, a Baku survivor who launched and runs “Kids of Karabakh” charity in San Francisco, inspires me with her tireless humanitarian efforts.  Ilona Kocharyan, daughter of Baku refugees now living in a war-torn Ukraine, recently shot her first film about Artsakh called “The Roots,” moving me to tears.  Saro Saryan, a Baku refugee, veteran of Artsakh’s liberation war, is running a refugee organization out of Shushi, and introducing Artsakh to the visitors from all over the world.  And they are just a handful of amazing refugees I have met across the world in my work.  But we cannot do it alone.

What I am still failing to see, and continue to advocate for, is for the Sargsyan Administration and other entities of the Armenian government, to properly commemorate the 30th, the 35th, and the 50th anniversary of the Sumgait, Kirovabad, Baku and Maragha atrocities. I also continue to ask diaspora organizations how they commemorate these events.  I still advocate for these atrocities to be highlighted during the negotiations over Artsakh.   This historic anti-armenianism is very much relevant in the way the Aliyev regime approaches the conflict, and it will not change.  We cannot allow them to rewrite history.  This joint effort amongst us to advocate for the voiceless, and securing of the borders, are the only way to secure Artsakh’s independence.  And the best way to ensure these atrocities happen again is by deliberately brushing them under the proverbial rug.  Haven’t we learned this already?

Op-Ed Turkey’s Descent Into Authoritarianism

February 21, 2018

Representative Adam Schiff

BY ADAM SCHIFF

There are few countries with whom the United States has a more complex relationship than Turkey. Turkey is a member of NATO, hosts a major U.S. airbase in Incirlik, and has long boasted a vigorous, if flawed, democracy in a strategically important Muslim country. For decades, the United States has cultivated ties with Turkey. But the relationship between our countries has been increasingly tested by the denial of its history of genocide, serious strategic differences, and its increasingly authoritarian character under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The strains in the US-Turkey relationship are becoming gaping rifts, with major implications for our bilateral relationship. With Erdogan’s drive to consolidate power, only intensified by a failed coup, Turkey has veered away from democracy and down the path towards autocracy. Political parties and leaders that oppose Erdogan’s policies are imprisoned and persecuted. Hundreds of thousands who are suspected of disloyalty have been fired from jobs. Turkey now has the dubious honor of being the world’s leading incarcerator of journalists.

On a recent visit to the United States, Erdogan’s personal security forces brutally assaulted peaceful protesters in Washington, DC. And Turkey has consistently prioritized combatting Kurdish nationalism, both within Turkey and in neighboring Syria, over all other issues and to the detriment of civil rights at home and regional stability abroad.

Now, with ISIS losing ground, Turkey has taken its war against Kurdish nationalism into northwestern Syria and the territory of Afrin, fighting the U.S. backed Kurdish forces who helped combat ISIS. This incursion is dangerous enough, but Turkey has suggested it intends to push even further into Syrian territory towards the city of Manbij, where a significant number of U.S. forces are currently stationed.

Such an action would directly threaten not only the lives of forces that have worked closely with the United States to decimate ISIS, but put American troops at risk, or bring us into direct conflict with a NATO ally, an unthinkable outcome. Comments made by Erdogan and other senior Turkish officials have blithely suggested that if any U.S. forces are injured in these actions, the fault will rest with the United States. These irresponsible actions and the rhetoric around them are more befitting an adversary than a nation with which we have a mutual defense agreement.

Turkish actions in Syria and its increasing belligerence towards the United States and on the world stage should cause us to reevaluate the totality of our policies, starting with the long overdue recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

As a longtime sponsor of legislation to recognize the Armenian Genocide, the extermination of 1.5 million Armenians from 1915 to 1923 by the Ottoman Empire, I am well acquainted with Turkey’s willingness to use threats to intimidate U.S. policymakers. It is only through a ferocious and well-funded lobbying campaign that successive Presidents and Congresses have failed to directly address the historic fact of the genocide. I have maintained for years that Turkey’s threats should not be taken at face value, and that ultimately, as they have with European nations who have recognized the Armenian Genocide, Turkey will simply do what it always does — whatever it believes is in its national interest.

Turkey never should have been given an effective veto over how America talks about an issue as important as genocide. Turkey’s veto power has become all the more untenable as it becomes more authoritarian, undermines U.S. security, and even threatens our troops. The Congress and the President would send a valuable and timely message to Turkey by properly recognizing and commemorating the Armenian Genocide when we mark the 103rd anniversary in April, making clear once and for all that we will not be intimidated into silence.

Roots Revealed: How a New Turkish Government Genealogy Database Exposes Citizens’ Armenian Ancestries

https://armenianweekly.com/2018/02/23/roots-revealed/

Erdogan Admits that Turkey is the ‘Continuation’ of the Ottoman Empire

For many decades, Turkish officials have outright denied the occurrence of the Armenian Genocide. In recent years, however, some Turks have made the excuse that today’s Turkish Republic is not responsible for the genocide, since it was committed by the Ottoman Empire—a defunct state.

An illustration published by a pro-Erdogan Turkish media outlet (A Haber) shows President Donald Trump receiving an “Ottoman slap” by President Erdogan. (Photo: A Haber)

With this pretext, the issue is no longer whether genocide was committed or not, but who is responsible for it. Those who use this justification, claim that the Republic of Turkey is neither the successor nor the continuation of the Ottoman Empire, but a new and separate state.

This argument has gradually grown weaker as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan began speaking and acting as an Ottoman Sultan.

Two weeks ago, the Turkish leader made matters worse for his country when he, according to the Times of London, asserted that “modern Turkey is a ‘continuation’ of the Ottoman Empire—a direct contradiction of [Mustafa Kemal] Ataturk’s ideology, which cast the Imperial era as backwards, stale, and to be discarded and forgotten rather than celebrated.”

By stating that Turkey is a “continuation” of the Ottoman Empire, Erdogan effectively concedes that today’s Turkey is responsible for the actions of the Ottoman Empire. In other words, the Republic of Turkey, which inherited the Ottoman Empire’s assets, also inherited its liabilities.

To confirm his allegiance to the Ottoman dynasty, Erdogan attended a ceremony earlier this month to mark the centenary of the death of Sultan Abdulhamid II, the “Red Sultan,” who has been rehabilitated by the current government. Erdogan conveniently ignored the fact that the Red Sultan had ordered the killing of 300,000 Armenians from 1894 to 1896—also known as the Hamidian massacres.

“The descendants of one of the last Ottoman sultans are to be given Turkish citizenship, ending almost a century of outcast and ostracism,” notes the Times’ article, which continues:

“Abdulhamid II ruled from 1876 to 1909, and was much maligned in Kemal Ataturk’s modern Turkish republic for his authoritarianism, anti-Westernism and clampdowns on the media. Yet, in the era of President Erdogan he has been rehabilitated. A television series, ‘Payitaht’, which depicts the life of Abdulhamid in glowing terms has been lauded by Mr. Erdogan as essential viewing for Turkish youths to find out about their country’s history… ‘We see Sultan Abdulhamid II as one of the most important, most visionary, most strategic-minded personalities who have put their stamps on the last 150 years of our state,’ Mr. Erdogan said. ‘We should stop seeing the Ottomans and the Republic as two eras that conflict with one another.’ Abdulhamid died in 1918 and at celebrations for the centenary this week, Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that he would personally oversee the granting of citizenships to the family.”

Arrogantly, Erdogan then warned that U.S. soldiers in Northern Syria would soon receive the “Ottoman slap,” according to Reuters. He was “referring to a half-legendary Turkish martial move that involves a potent open-palm hit, resulting in a one-hit knockout or even skull fractures and death.” An illustration published by a pro-Erdogan Turkish media outlet shows President Donald Trump receiving an “Ottoman slap” by President Erdogan. Furthermore, Reuters quoted Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu stating that Washington was backing the YPG [Kurdish forces in Syria] because it shared the same “Marxist, communist, atheist” ideology.

Professor Alfred de Zayas, an international law expert, explained in an essay titled, “The Genocide against the Armenians 1915-1923 and the relevance of the 1948 Genocide Convention,” that a successor state is responsible for the crimes committed by its predecessor regime. Moreover, a state that is a continuation of a previous entity is even more responsible because there is no difference between the two, as admitted by Erdogan two weeks ago.

In addition, in his study Alfred de Zayas quoted Professor M. Cherif Bassiouni: “In international law, the doctrine of legal continuity and principles of State responsibility make a ‘successor Government’ liable in respect of claims arising from a former government’s violations.” De Zayas concluded that “the claims of the Armenians for their wrongfully confiscated properties did not disappear with the change from the Sultanate to the regime of Mustafa Kemal.”

Finally, Professor de Zayas affirmed that “the principle of responsibility of successor States has been held to apply even when the State and government that committed the wrongs were not that of the ‘successor State.’ This principle was formulated, inter alia, by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Lighthouse Arbitration case.”

President Erdogan, by affirming that today’s Republic of Turkey is the continuation of the Ottoman Empire, has inadvertently admitted that Turkey is responsible for the genocidal, territorial, and economic damages caused by the Ottoman Empire to the Armenian people. Erdogan’s confession should be presented as evidence when demands emanating from the Turkish Genocide of Armenians are submitted to the World Court.

Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Director Hayk Demoyan to Discuss Modern Identity and Memory Politics at NAASR

BELMONT, Mass.—Dr. Hayk Demoyan will give a talk entitled “Between Realism and Mythology: Modern Identity and Memory Politics of the Armenian World” on March 8, at 7:30 p.m. at the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) Center (395 Concord Ave., Belmont, Mass. 02478).  The program is sponsored by the NAASR / Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Lecture Series on Contemporary Armenian Issues and is open to the public.

Hayk Demoyan (Photo: Varmin)

Demoyan will analyze and discuss modern aspects of identity and memory politics in Post-Soviet Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora, taking particular note of the manipulation and instrumentalization of history and historical markers—old and new symbols, heroes, historical events, etc.,—as well as their reinterpretation and (mis)representation.

For a long time such questions were considered as taboo within the official rhetoric of both the Armenian state and some diasporan circles, which tended to downplay existing antagonistic and opposing attitudes and to assert a kind of Armenia-Artsakh-Diaspora triple unity.  In fact, in different diasporan circles there are contradictory views towards Armenia and its status as “Homeland.”  At the same time, the institutionalization of Artsakh as a separate political entity, contrary to the initial policies of unification and merging, as well as the development of parallel diasporas, create further challenges.

Demoyan is the Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute in Yerevan, Armenia, a position he has held since 2006, and in 2017-18 he is a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University.

He is the author of 12 books, including The Armenian Genocide: Front Page Coverage in the World Media (2014, in Armenian, English, Russian, and French), Foreign Policy of Turkey and Karabagh Conflict (2013, in Russian), Armenian Sport and Gymnastics in the Ottoman Empire (2009, in Armenian), and Western Media Coverage of the Nagorno-Karabagh Conflict in 1988-1990 (2008, in English), as well as some 40 academic articles.

For more information about this program, contact NAASR at 617-489-1610 or hq@naasr.org.

Dutch Parliament to Reaffirm Recognition of the Armenian Genocide

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (A.W.)—The lower house of the Dutch Parliament (Tweede Kamer) will approve a motion, officially recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

The Tweede Kamer is the lower house of Dutch Parliament (Photo: Rijksoverheid)

A second motion that a Dutch Minister or the State Secretary should attend the official annual commemoration of the genocide in Armenia this April, will also approved, reported the NL Times.

The two motions were submitted by Joel Voordewind of the ChristenUnie and were supported by all four coalition parties.

“We can not deny history out of fear of sanctions. Our country houses the capital of international law after all, so we must not be afraid to do the right thing here too,” Voordewind said to Dutch daily Trouw earlier today.

In Dec. 2004, the Dutch Parliament unanimously adopted a resolution  calling on the Netherlands government to consistently bring up the Armenian Genocide in future negotiations dealing with Turkey’s accession to the European Union. The move came following extensive efforts by the Federation of Armenian Organizations in the Netherlands (FAON) and its April 24th Committee, both of which worked for years with Members of Parliament and representatives of their government in support of Armenian Genocide recognition.

The relationship between the Netherlands and Turkey has been tense as of late. The Netherlands recently refused Turkish ministers to campaign throughout the country for a referendum that extended Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s powers. A diplomatic feud erupted between the two countries last March and protests sparked after the Netherlands denied landing rights to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. The Dutch also barred the landing of Turkish Family and Social Policy Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya, according to the Dutch Foreign Ministry.

President Erdogan had attempted to rally the estimated 4.6 million expatriate Turks living in western Europe to vote in the then forthcoming Turkish referendum.

International election observers sharply criticized Turkey’s historic referendum, which took place a little over a month later and passed by a narrow margin. According to official results, 51.4% voted in favor of the proposed constitutional changes, which secured Erdogan’s increasing grip on power.

Germany, Austria, and Switzerland also denied landing rights to the Turkish foreign ministry prior to the referendum, citing security concerns as well. At the time, Turkey also summoned their Dutch envoy back to Ankara.

“To protest this decision by the Dutch Government, the Charge d’Affaires of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Ankara was summoned to the Foreign Ministry,” read a statement by the Turkish foreign ministry. “We informed that we did not wish the Dutch Ambassador who is presently on leave outside of Turkey to return to his post for some time.”

Demonstrators gathered outside the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam on March 11, 2015 (Photo: Peter Dejong/AP)

On March 13, 2017—two days after the refusal by Dutch authorities—President Erdogan also accused the Netherlands of acting like a “banana republic” instead of a member of the EU and called on sanctions while speaking at a mass ceremony.

“I call on all the EU institutions and all the international organizations that pursue a mission to uphold democracy, human rights and rule of law to raise their voices and even impose sanctions on the Netherlands,” read a statement on the President’s website. Erdogan also accused the Dutch of Nazism at the International Goodness Awards on March 11 in Istanbul. The Dutch Prime Minister said that Erdogan’s comments about Nazism were “unacceptable” and demanded an apology.