The Turkish government has said it will continue to hold rallies in Germany and the Netherlands to urge Turkish citizens living there to vote "yes" in a referendum to strengthen President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's powers, despite in both countries they express their opposition.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoλουlu criticized the German and Dutch authorities for banning such rallies, calling them anti-democratic, and said Turkey would continue to hold 16 rallies until the referendum.
"None of you can stop us," the Turkish foreign minister said at a rally in southern Turkey.
"We can go where we want, meet with our citizens, hold our rallies."
At the same time, several members of Angela Merkel's ruling coalition voiced their concerns today about Turkish ministers trying to gain support among the 1,5 million Turks living in Germany.
According to the Athens Agency, Jürgen Hardt, spokesman for the foreign policy of the conservative Christian Democratic Union party, told the Reuters news agency:
"We do not want Turkey's anti-democratic and illegal referendum to be promoted on German soil."
The Turkish authorities were outraged by the cancellations of rallies in Germany for security reasons, and the Turkish leadership accuses Germany of adopting two measures and two weights.
Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci, however, plans to address events tomorrow in Leverkusen and Cologne.
For its part, the Dutch government announced yesterday that it would inform Ankara of its opposition to the "undesirable" proposals for holding a referendum rally in Rotterdam.
The Dutch told us "you can not campaign in public". What do you mean, we can not? "Where is democracy? Where is freedom of expression?" stressed Mevlüt Çavuşoλουlu.
Source: newsbeast.gr