Turkey faces diplomatic rift with Europe
AMSTERDAM — A diplomatic rift between Turkey and key European nations deepened Sunday as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Germany of “Nazi practices,” days after a local authority prevented a Turkish minister from addressing a rally.
At an election campaign event in Amsterdam, meanwhile, Dutch right-wing populist Geert Wilders also resorted to extreme-right comparisons, calling Erdogan an “Islamo-fascist leader.”
The tensions have been rising in recent days amid Turkish plans to have government ministers address rallies in Germany and the Netherlands in support of an upcoming constitutional referendum that would give Erdogan new powers.
On Thursday, Turkey’s justice minister canceled a meeting with his German counterpart after local authorities in southwest Germany withdrew permission for him to use a venue to hold a rally near the French border that was part of a campaign to get Turks in Germany to vote “yes” in the referendum.
Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern, in an interview with the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, said it’s time to pull the plug on long-stalled moves to bring Turkey into the 28-nation EU.