Foreign Ministry Warns Dutch Authorities On Bilateral Relations

The Foreign Ministry has called on Dutch authorities to stop acting in a way that damages the will of boosting bilateral relations with Turkey.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç issued a statement on Wednesday saying recent developments in the Netherlands have caused great concern in Turkey.

Bilgiç noted a report allegedly prepared by the Dutch authorities and sent to the country's parliament about Turkish associations in the Netherlands contained negative comments about Turks living there.

Bilgiç also mentioned a poll conducted in the Netherlands in which Turkish youth living there were presented as extremists or supporters of terrorism.

“Such aggressive attitudes and racist accusations about Turks, who are part of Dutch society, and [about] Turkey, an ally, are unacceptable and intolerable,” said Bilgiç, according to a statement posted on the website of the Foreign Ministry.

“We are having difficulty understanding the intentions of bringing up this baseless racism, which is not in concordance with our current or past bilateral relations,” he added.

He also said it is “absolutely not acceptable” to discriminate against Turks in the Netherlands by making them a target of xenophobic, racist and Islamophobic accusations.

He stressed that targeting Turks with unjust accusations will not help their integration into Dutch society.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)