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Yazının Türkçesini burada okuyabilirsiniz.
These two weeks have been a bumpy ride, to say the least, for the Turkish government in terms of foreign policy. First, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attacked Germany, calling them Nazis, and now he did the same for the Netherlands following the cancellation of the Foreign Minister’s plane’s landing permit and the deportation of the Minister of Family to Germany. (Yes, we have a ministry that regulates family life)
Normally, I try to conduct more in-depth analysis but this time, my emotions are taking over my logic The problem is, my friends, the Turkish government now claims that Europe has turned into a tyranny, infused in authoritarianism, for doing what it already does to its own citizens on a daily basis. This disgusting hypocrisy made my sympathy completely diminish for Dutch-Turks, who gathered around the Turkish Embassy in Rotterdam and protested the Dutch government’s decision and then were attacked and dispersed by the Dutch police and water cannons.
I am truly sorry, but I have a hard time keeping the moral high ground here. I will not defend the Dutch government’s actions, but it is impossible from my moral standpoint to regard the protesters as anything other than hypocrites. Here is why:
- Any kind of sympathy for the Turkish government is sympathy for their methods of crushing opposition and jailing politicians, journalists, academics, intellectuals by labeling them “terrorists”.
- Even if you have no sympathy for the Turkish government but solely defend the ministers’ freedom of speech, you have to understand that they will not only simply exercise their free speech rights. They are campaigning for a referendum that proposes amendments in the constitution, which will give the Turkish president unlimited powers such as dismantling the parliament any time he wants, unlimited executive order authority and the power to appoint judges to or remove them from the Supreme Court. Furthermore, their campaign rhetoric is based on targeting the “No” voters, academics and intellectuals, accusing them of treason to the country and supporting terrorism. Because of this, every time they open their mouths, they jeopardize the safety of my friends and family.
- The protesters in Rotterdam are dual citizens, who will most probably vote “Yes” in the referendum, validating the unlimited power granted to the president and legitimizing future oppression on Erdoğan’s dissidents. While these people enjoy their most basic rights, high-quality education and welfare systems in countries like Germany, the Netherlands and other Northern European countries, they relentlessly support a tyranny that strips the very same rights and opportunities off the Turkish citizens.
- It is only funny to hear that most of these people do not want to return and live in Turkey, although they praise the leadership of Erdoğan and power of Turkey on every single occasion and platform. Well, if they like Turkey this much, then what stops these people from coming back?
- While these protesters praise Erdoğan for cracking down on “traitors” “inner enemies” and “terrorists”, why are they so pissed, yelling about democracy values, when the Dutch government treats them the same way?
All political games and democracy values aside, as someone who has suffered at the hands of the Turkish government, I have no sympathy for their supporters who for the first time taste their own medicine and experience what it feels like to be oppressed just for having a stance on a cause that matters to them. Although this does not justify the Dutch police’s actions, I still have a glimpse of hope that maybe, maybe, this experience will be eye-opening for them, now that they have a first-hand experience with everything we have been already going through since the last decade.
What do you think about this ongoing diplomatic crisis? Can you sympathize for the protesters, unlike me? You can share your opinion in the comments.
Featured image credit: Carlos Latuff
Update (March 13, 2017): I understand the criticism directed to this post that there is a very diverse Turkish community in the Netherlands, which is true and should never be forgotten. Being Turkish/Dutch or Turkish/German or Turkish/X does not equate to being an Erdoğan supporter and this kind of a reductive narrative only empowers the dangerous rhetoric of ultra-nationalists like Geert Wilders. The sole focus of this post, however, is the Euro-Turkish citizens who support and protest in the name of Erdoğan. So, I had to limit my scope and could not mention the rest of the Turkish community. But I welcome the chance to share your experiences and opinions here on my blog. Please do not hesitate to share your opinion or criticism in the comments or by using Contact, so that I can respond to them here or correct myself if I made any errors.
Moon & Butterfly 
yaziklar olsun, Erdogan dusmanligi neler yaptiriyor. vatan hainleri, kansizlar!
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Yazımı bir daha okuyun isterseniz, mesajı kaçırmış olabilirsiniz. Benim gözümde asıl vatan hainliği, bir referandum kazanabilmek uğruna devletin kaynaklarını sömürerek koskoca bir ülkenin dış politikasını ateşe atmaktır.
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Dogru tespit
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Atamızın ülkeye getirdiği laikliği ayağıyla tekmeleyen trk vatan hainleri, Erdoğan’ı tutanlardır, turkishblood. Bunu da unutmayın. Bir vakit gelecek ki, Erdoğan salleşşeytanu aleyhi velkerh, sizin gibileri de beğenmeyip, hapse attıracak.
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Hayır oyu vermek isteyen herkes bu mantığa göre vatan haini kansız terrorist oluyor. Zaten referandum falan değil yani.
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I am totally agree with you. Those who does not agree are probably non-educated, blind Erdogan followers.
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peki canım haklısın
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i am not non-educated, i am not Erdogan followers. Yet, i will vote for yes cuz its logical to me. its not about akp or another party. its about constitution.
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Of course, you may not be an Erdoğan supporter but still vote yes. But why do you think the constitution needs to change? (Türkçe yanıt verebilirsiniz)
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Than you are dumb as they get.. i cant imagine someone mindfully say yes to destruction of every right including human rights he has plus come here to brag about it.. i pity your ignorance sir.
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You said it yourself: it’s about constitution. And you really want to allow those amendments to the constitution?? You really want to give even more power to one person (Erdogan)? Sounds like totalitarianism to me…
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No that is totally wrong, it is the opposite. The decision of the Dutch government is wrong and will help Erdogan! Now he can play the victim like “They (EU) are against us(Turkey), they do not see us as equals” and this is what he wants. He wants to widen gap between Turkey and Europe. On the other hand, how will Europe intervene when Erdogan smashes protestors (like Gezi-Park)? It is hard to say there should be freedom of speech for everyone to somebody you declined it!
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I see your point and I see the rhetoric potential this incident provides to AKP. However, as I said in my article, promoting “Yes” in the referendum is not the freedom of speech, because their propaganda is based on the claim that “No” voters are terrorists. All of my relatives and friends and family are “No” voters and they feel alienated in their own country now. And a speech that alienates a certain segment of the society is not considered a free speech, it is considered a hate speech.
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To be more specific, the Dutch Government’s actions are strategically wrong, if their aim was to influence the process of vote in Turkey. But I guess, they are currently much more occupied with ther own upcoming vote, trying to show themself as “the hard guys” that put up straight rules.
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Meanwhile, I have to agree to you that such a symbolic way of politic is as stupid as the whole Burka prohibition debate…
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Whether you support or disagree with Erdogan, or they are doing right, wrong is irrelevant, in the whole of her history, Turkey never had a minister deported by force, disallowing entry to the embassy. You can say its Erdogan’s fault that a minister was there despite being warned or Erdogan is jailing this or the judges in turkey are biased, you can say all of that.
However Turkey is bigger than Erdogan, And it’s our country that’s being dismalled by another country, ıf you like your country you stand by it no matter who rules it. The best thing you can do is to hope the government to change, you can oppose the government as you like. However never ever stand against your country against some other country. That’s treason in my book however you put it. Trump gets many things wrong but he is right in one thing, he puts America first, well for us it should be “Turkey first”.
This is a grave situation, you can oppose as you like in the country but you dont side with another country against your own country whether it be a minister or citizen. We have many problems, we don’t need Turkish citizens who goes along with other countries.
Regards.
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I don’t see it this way. The ministers were there to rally for “Yes” in the referendum, using the government resources, which means it is our taxes. And I do not accept my tax money to be spent on campaigns I don’t even support. This is why I see this as the humiliation of AKP and not Turkey, as long as the Turkish people raise their voices to express their discontent with AKP’s actions. This way, it is possible to prevent misunderstanding and let the international arena know that AKP’s actions do not equate to Turkey’s.
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Dissent is the most patriotic thing you can do. Simply supporting a government because its yours is not only simple minded but it’s dangerous. Take for example, Israel—this government has systematically oppressed Palestinians for over 60 years… and you think those living within its country’s borders should be “with” the country.
As far as your remarks about Trump’s “America First” rhetoric, that’s also quite dangerous. When we turn inwards, we turn a blind eye to the world and we cannot live in ignorance that turning inward is what will work in today’s modern, globalized and complicated world.
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And for the Netherlands it should thus be ‘The Netherlands first’. As a Dutch I can’t say I agree. Factually I know 99.9% of people don’t have bad intentions. I am thankfull for the Turkish people that moved to the Netherlands after the second world war to help us rebuild, leaving their homes, family and friends. I am thankfull for the mother of my best friend in primary school who would have me over for lunch when my mom was at work. So why Dutch people first? I would say people first. Regardless of nationality, etnicity, gender or anything else that divides us.
In the past days I have been thinking a lot about the situation at hand. There is a lot of instability in Europe, in the USA. The nationalist agenda’s of Trump, of Wilders’ and his party, are understandable in that light. And the reaction of the Dutch government is understandable in that light. I am not saying it is right. I don’t think anyone, including our Prime Minister Rutte, was hoping for this as the end result.
So instead of saying ‘the Netherlands first’ or ‘Turkey first’, a better approach would be to be introspective, and understand the escalation from both sides. And to accept that both parties made mistakes.
The issue now is, do we try talking more, or is it time for action? There is a problem with Dutch people not knowing whether those people, some of whom moved here decades ago, are Turkish or Dutch. Logically, because they are both. When something goes wrong, it is easy to blame people different from you. They don’t know, understand. There is an undeniable tension between ‘the Dutch’, and others at the moment.
This tension is only hightened by others coming into our country for their own gain. Do I agree with campaigning for a cause in another, sovereign country? I honestly don’t know. It isn’t a question I ever asked myself before because we don’t have significantly sized groups of Dutch abroad. For that reason it feels strange.
Normally I think, it would have been ignored. Generally speaking Dutch have an attitude that if it doesn’t hurt us, we don’t object. However with the tension, and national elections this week, the government decided to make a stand. One they maybe shouldn’t have made. Turkey could have responded in several ways, for instance questioning under what circumstances would a visit be acceptable and why are they objecting. However president Erdogan called us Nazi’s and Fascists, and almost immediatly started threatening with consequences. What signal would it have given to the Dutch civilians, the Dutch voters, if the Netherlands had now allowed the visit?
How would you have wanted the Netherlands to respond to the visit of minister Kaya, when they had already barred minister Cavusoglu from flying to Rotterdam on Saturday? You wanted the Dutch to say “welcome, here have some cookies.”?
Anyways, I found an article (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-referendum-netherlands-idUSKBN16J0IU), that much better explains some aspects of this very complicated situation. Given what has happened, how do you propose we move forward?
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Do you really mean that, than Hitler should be backed by each and every German citizen at that time to all extend that each and every of them shall die at the fronts and streets defending him and his entire circle in the name of defending the ruling of their country against others that were against their so called ruling government?
Let’s think one more time, is that patriotic and such people should burn in hell ?
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“if you like your country you stand by it no matter who rules it.” That’s the absolutely wrong way to think. As an American, I left the USA in 2005 out of disgust of the unsubstantiated Iraq war, and I moved to Turkey. During those days, I would have supported Turkey against America in a heartbeat. America was wrong to do what they did in the Middle East. Should I have supported the violent overthrow of the Iraqi state? The murder of civilians? The unwarranted support of the state of Israel? Just because I was born and raised in the USA, should I stand by the atrocities committed by my country?
If your country is wrong, you have the RESPONSIBILITY to stand against it. If you don’t, then others will get hurt.
Just in case it matters, I am not ethnically Turkish or from Middle Eastern or Muslim descent. I am your stereotypical white American guy from a Midwestern redneck town.
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Exactly! Thank you for bringing this up, it’s very important yet somehow so many people choose to disregard the distinction between the country and the government. In my belief, a true patriot is the one who stands up to wrongdoings of the governments, for the sake of their country.
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As much as I loathe Erdoğan, I cannot condone the actions of the Dutch police. It is a terrible day for democracy, when protesters get hit with water cannons, and when their rights to freedom of gathering, and their rights to voicing their opinions, is curbed by the executive powers that be. No matter what the Dutch government allow or forbid foreign diplomats to do, it is improper, and surely questionable, to disperse a demonstration so violently. I look forward to a Supreme Court case.
Erdoğan’a kat’îyen karşı olduğum hâlde, Hollanda’daki polisin yaptığı hamleyi yüksek sesle kınıyorum. Demokraside çareler tükenmez — her ne olursa olsun, bir eyleme katılmak, her vatandaşın anayasal hakkıdır. Biz ki Erdoğan’ın yaptıklarını kınıyorsak; ardından aynısını yapmak, çok daha beter olsa gerek: iki yüzlülük denilir buna.
Hollanda yürütümünün kararına pek çok bir şey diyemeyeceğim; başka ülkenin bakanlarına giriş izini vermeleri, ya da vermemeleri, haklarıdır. Türkiye hükûmeti de sussun, kendi ülkesinde kalsın.
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Yorumunuz için teşekkürler. Hollanda polisinin yaptığını doğru bulmamak ve protestocuların tavırlarının ikiyüzlülüğünü reddetmek benim için iki ayrı konu, bu nedenle hem polis şiddetini hem de protestocuların tutumunu eleştirebilmeliyiz.
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Do you know what really happened in Rotterdam? Do you really know how the police works over here in The Netherlands? A lot of people who protested just went home, they were there expressed what they thought and left in peace. The police force does not use any force on people who demonstrate in peace. They even accepted this illegal demonstration as in The Netherlands we feel that everyone can express their feelings, although the demonstration was not registered upfront. The people who you see being handled by the Dutch police are the small group that does not respect the police, our country and values and are very aggressive. If they would have gone home, nothing would have happened. As they were aggressive and did not want to leave when that was requested, the police had to “help” them, it was those people’s own choice. They think they do not have to obey our Dutch laws and you know what? They are wrong and have been facing the consequences.
And how hypocrite is it to sue The Netherlands, while in Turkey people are being jailed for speaking their opinion and disagreeing with Erdogan and ONLY for that reason? No free journalism… We should sue Turkey for that! Nothing human, nothing democratic what Erdogan is doing. And then wanting to come over to The Netherlands, while being asked not to come and then mislead the major of Rotterdam by sending another minister via Germany???? That is provocation and I’m not sure if you know, but The Dutch government has offered multiple options for the minister to speak to people in a private place but nothing was good enough for Turkey and while they were talking to one another on the phone to work things out, on the Turkish tv, Erdogan was already saying that he would put sanctions and calling us Nazi’s and fascists….. That stopped the negotiation immediately of course. We do not have a tiran insult us while we are doing our best to get to a solution, knowing and completely disagreeing with how he is ruling Turkey.
The Dutch government never wanted this escalation, Erdogan did and is using EVERYTHING against us and Europe to deviate the attention of the Turkish people on what HE is doing to is own people and country and have Turkey turn into a dictatorship and calling it democracy. You cannot say that what The Netherlands did was wrong. We are the first to put our foot in the sand and draw the line of what Europe is taking from Turkey. Erdogan blew it himself, provoked us, and we do not stand for it. If it was the other way around Turkey would not have stand for it either. Erdogan is provoking us and while we wanted to solve it, he didn’t and now is saying that we are the bad ones? Really unbelievable. The world up side down. It’s as if we are in a bad movie. There is no blame on The Netherlands, we had to respond. We cannot sit there as softies and have Erdogan call us Nazi’s and fascists, coming out of a dictator’s mouth and then come against our advice, and tell people in our country what to do or what to vote and intimidate Turkish people in foreign countries. We have our own government that can handle our country by themselves very well and we will not have an idiot like him thinking he can say and do whatever he wants. It’s already bad that he is doing this in Turkey and gets away with it. It stops right here and right now. We will not endanger democracy by someone who thinks he has all the power. He doesn’t and never will.
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Thank you for sharing your opinion here, it is very insightful and I’m sure will give readers a fresh perspective.
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Ellerine saglik Gökce, cok guzel dile getirmissin benim de icimden gecenleri.
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Teşekkür ederim Dilek hanım.
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One thing to keep in mind: the force used by the police only happened when the police was already withdrawing when the protesters decided to attack them. Only from that moment the police used their force.
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Thank you. I understand, I read about it. But once exercised and legitimized, the police violence only leads to further justification of the police violence. I witnessed this in Turkey, this is why I cannot find any degree of police violence acceptable.
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Excellent, excellent analysis !
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Thank you!
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en uzucusu de beyinleri oyle bir yikanmis ki turk olmayi erdogan sevmekle esitlemeye kalkmalari. Merak ediyorum, bu akil tutulmasiyla hollanda polisinin yaptiginin 5 beterini AKP’nin kendi vatandasina yillardir yaptiginin farkindalar mi? demokrasi disi fikirlerini demokratik ulkelerde yaymaya kalkmanin da bir sonu olmali..
the saddest part is that they try to equate being a Turk to favoring Erdogan, and they try to spread their undemocratic ideas in democratic countries (this time they finally stop them)
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I would like to comment that I don’t particularly agree with your comparison of the repression of protesters in Turkey, by the Turkish government, and what happened Saturday in the Netherlands. Peaceful protest is fully allowed in the Netherlands. The municipality of Rotterdam had assigned no less than three large spaces to demonstrate (one for Erdogan supporters, one for opponents, and one extra). People were fully free to demonstrate there as long as they wanted, and with as many people as they could find (as long as it remained peaceful of course). The area around the Turkish consulate was specifically not deemed appropriate, as it is an area with lots of traffic, and limited space. Even then, protesters were allowed to protest there, as the police didn’t want to escalate the situation. It was only very late in the evening, when most protesters had left of their own accord, that the police had to force the remaining protesters to go home.
To make a ridiculous analogy: I don’t have the right to enter a secure military base, because I want to protest there, citing freedom of speech.
Otherwise, good piece, and I absolutely welcome the international debate.
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Thank you, I completely understand your criticism. But police violence is something I am deeply sensitive about due to the circumstances in Turkey, and because of this I cannot justify an act of violence.
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Yazinin hemen hemen hepsine katilirken tek itiraz ettigim sey Hollanda polisinin yaptigindan hosnut olmamaniz. Sehrin duzenini bozan, icindeki heykellere zarar veren, vatandaslarin huzurunu kaciran herkese yaptiklarinin aynisini yaptilar. Hollanda zaten saldirgan bir ulke degil. Ben de Hollanda’da yasayan, Turkiye’de ve burada huzur kaciranlardan rahatsizlik duyan azinliktan biriyim. Yazinizda da bahsettiginiz gibi, faydalarindan sonuna kadar beslenip, baska ulkenin insanina ve kulturune saygi duymayan insanlar Turkiye’ye geri donsun.
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Demek istediğinizi anlıyorum. Fakat benim bakış açım, polisin bir kez şiddet uygulamaya başlaması ve bunun bir kez kabul edilebilir olması, gelecekte de aynı türden bir müdahalenin yine kabul edilebilir olacağı anlamına geliyor. Bu nedenle tereddütlerim var, polis şiddeti de zaten benim hassas olduğum bir konu. Ama yorumunuz için teşekkür ederim.
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Polisi tekmeleyen Turk vatandasinin fotografini henuz gormediginizi var sayiyorum. Siddetin her turlusune karsi oldugumu belirtir, yaziniz icin tesekkur ederim.
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Hayır, görmemiştim. Akıl almaz bir durum.
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‘Although this does not justify the Dutch police’s actions’
The protesters started to fight while the Dutch police where holding back, something you didn’t see on CNN Tûrk
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No, I knew about it and I understand. But once exercised and legitimized, the police violence only leads to further justification of the police violence. I witnessed this in Turkey, this is why I cannot find any degree of police violence acceptable.
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I don’t agree with violance either. However you need to accept that sometimes using force is necessary to maintain public order and ensure safety. Police and military are entities that are by law authorized to this. The question about whether their reaction here was correct is thus dependent on the question whether the violance used was excessive to the situation.
In the Netherlands all uses of police force is extensively reported about in media, because generally speaking it is a rare occurance. I thus don’t agree that it leads to further justification of police violance.
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Gavurun bokunu yemeye tam gaz devam.
Azıcık ilgi için kimliğini satan sansız köpekler.
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İlgi isteseydim hükümet yalakalığı yapmayı tercih ederdim, hükümete karşı çıkmayı değil.
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Tebrikler hislerime tercüman olmuşsunuz. Size sonuna kadar katılıyorum.
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Türkiye hiçbir ülkenin elçisini geri çevirmedi derken, ülkemize milyonlarca hristiyan gelip yerleşseydi de biz bir görseydik bakalım Nasıl onlara sahip çıkacaklardı, Türkiye’deki milyonlarca hristiyan göçe zorlandı, ve halen zorlanıyor, kendi ülkemizdeki azınlıklara nasıl davranıyoruz bir bakalım önce, Almanya ve Hollanda da helal et süpermarketlerde satılıyor, camiler inşa ediliyor ve her hakları korunuyor. Hadi bizde de domuz eti satsınlar markette bir görelim. Korka korka Noel kutlar olduk.
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Reblogged this on mister Soemo and commented:
Sometimes…
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Excellent analysis of the situation in Rotterdam!
You are correct about those Dutch-Turks dual citizenship protesters.
They are not aware they are living in a real democratic county while they are willing to give their vote ‘Evet’ for a growing dictator in a country that almost totally erase the democratic values!
This was also happening at the beginning when Hitler gain his power by lying to the German citizens and the world.
Learn from the past, open your eyes and avoid those miss steps again!
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“I Have No Sympathy for the Turkish Protesters in the Netherlands” this statement is so heavy and so disgusting. This comments show that you have no sympathy for human race because you are so blind by politics. How could anyone could see the footage of dog biting man’s leg viciously and feel okay with it? And ask yourself would not you feel bad if it was your friend or family. I assume you wont make friends with people who have different politic ideas.
Regardless of the events in Netherlands, it is so sad that someone could write such an article about it’s own kind just because they have different political opinion. Could you tell me, in what way is this different than the ideas of people like Wilders in NL. I guess you would be happy to say bloody Turkish being animals again.
Police and politics of the NL don’t change my mind about people in NL. I would never be judgmental like racism wants us to be. What is makes me sad that even some Dutch citizens could empathize, my own kin are so fiers to jump on conclusion.
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Gianni, did you read the article or did you just stop reading after the title?
If you read it, you would see that there is nothing disgusting about any part of it. The author is criticizing the hypocrisy of the protesters.
I don’t know how informed you are about what’s going on in Turkey but there are very serious problems going on there.
Those demonstrators are living in an open and free society but they were demonstrating in support of an oppressive regime and they want to change Turkey’s constitution to make it even more oppressive.
Turkey is (currently) a democratic country but the pillars of its democracy has been eaten by Erdogan’s party little by little for the last 15 years. And now it is about to collapse. This might not mean anything to you but it is a serious problem for the people of Turkey. Today in Turkey, no one can freely talk about or write about their views in Twitter without risking getting arrested by the government.
So what if a police dog bit a protester?! No one got seriously injured or killed, unlike some of the protesters in Turkey. Don’t get me wrong, humanism, loving the fellow human beings etc. are really nice and I am all for it, but you are missing the whole point here while trying to emphasize with the bitten protester.
You should really do some more reading and know who you are trying to emphasize with.
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Very nice article, stating a sad truth. One correction must be made: the Dutch police did NOT attack the protesters. On the contrary. The Rotterdam police was attacked by protesters. Of course as their only possible response they then used their prerogative of using force themselves. Please note that in The Netherlands even the police may not use force without good reason, or a lawsuit will follow as a consequence….
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Thank you for the correction. I am afraid this was overlooked by most Turkish media outlets on purpose.
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I love what you said at “Well, if they like Turkey this much, then what stops these people from coming back?” – I can guarantee you, there won’t be anyone stopping them if they decide to do so. A lot of those people don’t fit in with the Dutch values, but they do speak the language so they think this country should become more accomodating to them instead of going back to Turkey. Of course this doesn’t apply to all Turks, some are integrating quite well, but these protestors can be directly send to Turkey as far as I’m concerned.
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i hardly can read you GREY ON WHITE text, please take care for READBLE CONTRAST.
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I agree with many of the points Gokce stated here, I especially applaud this post for not being some fanatical banter about how much of a “thug” Erdogan is etc. I also like how some of the hypocrisies are being exposed. My honest thoughts are that Europe in this age is in a kind of an identity crisis. It faces multitudes of refugees escaping poverty, war or many forms of discrimination for the relatively safe and stable waters that is most of the european countries. This causes an unprecendented amount of concern and chaos inside Europe who seem unsure as to how to deal with the crisis it is facing, and this bleakness gives rise to xenophobic and nationalistic fervor. It is not such a surprising thing for Turkish politicians who support either side of the spectrum to seek political meetings or conferences in Europe, when millions of Turkish voters potentially have a significant say in the matter. That is so long as the said meetings are not related to internal matters of other nations, for example I do believe that a Turkish government-parliamentary backed anti-Wilders rally in Netherlands would have been fundamentally wrong.
But as far as I know that was not the case here, so in that case I do think that the decisions taken by the Dutch authorities are a breach of rights to free speech. However, I do not support Turkish authorities for forcing this issue in the way that they did and not look out for a healthy compromise with the Dutch authorities, especially considering that they had their own concerns towards an election that should be happening today in Netherlands. The vulgar language used by the Turkish authorities is also unacceptable, especially remarks about Nazism.
Another point I wanted to make also is that the post seemingly holds the entire Dutch-Turkish community as a whole, while there are many remarks made by numerous Dutch-Turks who completely opposed the demonstration in Rotterdam and Erdogan’s rhetoric in general.
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