Calculated tension: Turkey talks big to Europe but holds back from economic steps
Turkey’s flare-up with the Netherlands and Germany appears to be a policy of calculated tensions, aimed at maximum political gains with minimum damage ahead of a critical referendum in April.
In 2012, Turkey and the Netherlands marked the 400th anniversary of their diplomatic ties. In April that year, Turkey’s then-President Abdullah Gul paid a high-profile visit to the Netherlands, where Queen Beatrix hosted a dinner to honor him in the royal palace. Speaking at the dinner, Gul praised the level of bilateral ties, stressing their multifaceted dimensions in the political, economic and cultural fields.
After the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, the Netherlands was among the three NATO allies to deploy Patriot air defense batteries at the Syrian border in response to Ankara’s request for support against possible attacks.
On April 1, Turkish-Dutch diplomatic relations will turn 405, but this time the anniversary is mired in an acrimonious crisis that erupted March 11 and escalated sharply to bring relations to the brink of a breaking point in just 48 hours.
On March 13, the Turkish Foreign Ministry issued two separate diplomatic notes to the Netherlands, while the Cabinet suspended all official contacts, banned diplomatic flights from the Netherlands, banned the Dutch ambassador — who was on leave — from returning to Ankara and urged parliament to dissolve the Turkish-Dutch parliamentary friendship group.
