Military coup underway in Turkey

Turkey's Erdogan renews war of words on Netherlands

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday directed fresh verbal attacks at the Netherlands amid their growing diplomatic spat, holding the country responsible for Europe's worst mass killing since World War II.

In a televised speech, Erdogan referred to the massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, eastern Bosnia, in 1995, and blamed a Dutch battalion of United Nations peacekeepers who failed to halt the slaughter by Bosnian Serb forces.

Erdogan said: "We know the Netherlands and the Dutch from the Srebrenica massacre. We know how rotten their character is from their massacre of 8,000 Bosnians there." Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte condemned Erdogan's comments, calling them a "disgusting distortion of history."

"We will not lower ourselves to this level. It is totally unacceptable," Rutte told Dutch broadcaster RTL Z. It was the latest in Erdogan's war of words on the Netherlands, which prevented two Turkish ministers from holding campaign rallies in the country over the weekend. The two ministers had sought to campaign in an April 16 referendum on expanding Erdogan's powers, courting the votes of eligible Turks in the Netherlands. Around 400,000 people with ties to Turkey live in the Netherlands.

The Turkish leader previously called the Netherlands "Nazi remnants" and also accused it of "fascism." Earlier, Turkey criticized the European Union for siding with the Netherlands in the row. In a statement Tuesday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said the EU's stance on Turkey was "short-sighted" and "carried no value" for Turkey, as well as lending "credence" to extremists.

The ministry argued that the European bloc had "ignored the (Netherlands') violation of diplomatic conventions and the law" after Dutch authorities escorted the Turkish family affairs minister out of the country and denied the foreign minister permission to land.

The diplomatic spat between the two countries escalated swiftly with Erdogan making several Nazi comparisons with EU member states. The EU has called on Turkey to cease "excessive statements."

The spat has raised concerns that co-operation between the EU and Turkey on a number of issues, such as dealing with the flow of migrants from war-torn Syria, may start to fray. On Monday, Turkey slapped a series of political sanctions against the Netherlands, including halting political discussions between the two countries and closing Turkish airspace to Dutch diplomats. Other sanctions bar the Dutch ambassador entry back into Turkey and advise parliament to withdraw from a Dutch-Turkish friendship group.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said the sanctions would apply until the Netherlands takes steps "to redress" the actions that Ankara sees as a grave insult. Erdogan said Tuesday there could be more sanctions but did not elaborate. Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Turkey Customs and Trade Minister Bulent Tufenkci as saying economic sanctions "could come to the agenda in the period ahead."

I find I am running out of words to adequately react to Erdogan, LL. I just shudder to think what appalling thing he will do next to rabble-rouse his domestic audience.

He's such a dangerous man.  

Does Erdogan forget this?

The German–Turkish Non-Aggression Pact (German: Türkisch-Deutscher Freundschaftsvertrag) (Turkish: Türk-Alman Dostluk Paktı) was signed between Nazi Germany and Turkey on June 18, 1941 in Ankara by German ambassador to Turkey Franz von Papen and Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Şükrü Saracoğlu. It became effective on the same day.

The pact, which was intended to be in force for a period of ten years, lasted only until 24 October 1945, when Turkey joined the United Nations.

Ataturk died in 1938. Had he lived this would never have happened. LL

Erdogan won't care, LL, he's aiming at his domestic audience, and doesn't give a flying one what anyone outside Turkey thinks.

https://order-order.com/2017/03/15/pro-erdogan-mass-twitter-hack/

Last night several major Twitter accounts posted tweets showing a swastika symbol and the words “Nazi Germany” and “Nazi Holland” written in Turkish. Some accounts had their header image changed to the Turkish flag in what seems to be a mass hack by supporters of the Turkish autocrat Erdogan. Affected accounts include Forbes, Amnesty International, the European Parliament, Justin Bieber, Dortmund football club, the UK Department of Health and EyeSpy.MP. It seems the hack happened via a third-party app – possibly Twitter Counter – rather than the accounts themselves being compromised. Twitter Counter claimed in November that they had secured their accounts after a hack…

Erdogan says Europe drowning in fear of Muslims.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lashed out anew against the Netherlands and European nations, repeating an assertion that the Dutch were responsible for the slaughter of Bosnians in Srebrenica in 1995 and saying the EU was "drowning" in its fear of Muslims and refugees.

Erdogan on Wednesday also said he had given instructions for a "twinning" agreement between Istanbul and the Dutch city of Rotterdam be scrapped, saying "it is not possible to be twins under such conditions."

His statement came a day after the mayor of Rotterdam stated that specialized armed security forces he sent on Saturday to a standoff with a Turkish minister had permission to open fire if necessary. The minister was prevented from holding a campaign rally and later escorted out of the Netherlands.

Erdogan said of the Netherlands: "They have nothing to do with the civilized world; they have nothing to do with the modern world. They are the ones who massacred more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica."

"The EU is fast going toward drowning in its own fears," he said. Around 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed by Bosnian Serb troops in Srebrenica. Erdogan was referring to a Dutch battalion of United Nations peacekeepers who failed to halt the slaughter.

Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency says Istanbul's municipality has canceled a protocol that had declared Istanbul and Rotterdam twin cities.

The announcement came soon after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised address that he had given instructions for the twinning agreement to be scrapped, saying it was impossible for the two cities to be "twins" following the weekend's standoff between Dutch police and a Turkish minister in Rotterdam.

Anadolu Agency said the city assembly voted unanimously to end the twinning protocol that was signed in 2005.

Meanwhile, the Turkish members of a Turkish-Dutch parliamentary friendship group resigned from the joint committee, legislator Mustafa Elitas said.

The government had said Monday that it would recommend that the Turkish legislators leave the grouping as part of a series of political sanctions imposed against the Netherlands.

Survivors of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre have voiced outrage over the use of their suffering in Turkey's feud with the Netherlands.

On Tuesday, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed the Dutch for the Srebrenica massacre — the only episode of Bosnia's 1992-95 war to have been classed as genocide by two international courts — amid a diplomatic spat over campaigning for a Turkish referendum.

Hajra Catic, whose son and husband were among 8,000 Muslim men and boys massacred by Serb forces in Srebrenica in 1995, said Wednesday it was "a sin" to trade political barbs "over the bones of our killed children."

"When our children were being killed neither Dutch nor Turkish soldiers were there to protect them," she told Bosnian media.

Catic's view was echoed by a number of prominent massacre survivors, including the former major of post-war Srebrenica Camil Durakovic and Sadik Ahmetovic, a member of Bosnian parliament.

Delightful - he's fast turning into Europe's very own Fattie Spoonbanger.

Too bad that they both cannot be left to duke it out?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/dutch-elections-netherlands-geert-wilders-freedom-party-turkey-fascist-no-difference-rallies-islam-a7632571.html

A Turkish minister has claimed "holy wars will soon begin" in Europe, in spite of the defeat of far-right leader Geert Wilders in the Netherlands elections.

Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, did not welcome the victory for Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s centre-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD).

“Now the election is over in the Netherlands...when you look at the many parties you see there is no difference between the social democrats and fascist Wilders,” he said according to a translation by Hurriyet.

“All have the same mentality. Where will you go? Where are you taking Europe? You have begun to collapse Europe. You are dragging Europe into the abyss. Holy wars will soon begin in Europe.”


He should be very, very careful what he wishes for....

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-17/well-blow-your-mind-turkey-threatens-europe-15000-refugees-month

Earlier this week, at the peak of the latest diplomatic scandal between Turkey and the Netherlands, Ankara's deputy prime minister Numan Kurtulmus announced not only a round of sanctions aimed at the Dutch but exclaimed that since "Europe has not kept its promises on the migrant deal, for us that agreement has ended" to which we commented that "one year after it collected $3 billion for the migrant deal, Turkey has just voided the agreement, and the next step would be that Turkey is about to flood Europe with refugees currently held inside Turkish borders. And since by some estimates Turkey currently harbors over 2 million potential migrants, Europe's refugee situation is about to get far worse, and as a corollary, support for anti-immigrant political organizations across the continent is about to take another step function higher.

Today, Turkey put a tangible quantity to the warning, and as Turkey's Hurriyet Daily News reports, Turkey's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu threatened to "blow the mind" of Europe by sending 15,000 refugees a month to EU territory, in an intensifying dispute with the bloc.The threat is also a confirmation that for Turkey, refugees are merely a form of "weaponized" leverage in the escalating war of words between the country and Europe.

As a reminder, one year ago, on March 18, 2016, Ankara and Brussels signed a landmark deal that has substantially lessened the flow of migrants from Turkey to Europe. But the accord is now hanging in the balance due to the diplomatic crisis over the blocking of Turkish ministers from holding rallies in Europe.

"If you want, we could open the way for 15,000 refugees that we don't send each month and blow the mind" of Europe, Soylu said in a speech late Thursday, quoted by the Anadolu news agency. Soylu, a hardliner considered close to Erdogan, accused The Hague and Berlin of involvement in June 2013 anti-Erdogan protests, October 2014 pro-Kurdish riots and the July 15, 2016 failed coup attempt.

He seems to be forgetting just how totally horrible and violent Europeans can be when they're pushed too far - not everyone is a spineless progressive.

They will get theirs sooner or later. 

Turkey sends back Dutch cows amid diplomatic dispute.

Turkey’s red meat association has all cows imported from the Netherlands to be sent back as the diplomatic row between the two countries intensifies.

The head of the Turkish Association of Red Meat Producers, Bulent Tunc, told reporters that a symbolic consignment of 40 Holstein Friesian cattle was already being sent back to the Netherlands.

“The Dutch Holstein cows have become very common in our country. But this breed is starting to cause serious problems,” he told the Anadolu Agency.

"In future we do not want animal products from Holland. The first batch of Holsteins has been loaded and we will send them back."

He said that Turkey should start focusing on breeding its own cattle, adding: “We have our own quality breeds. If they don’t accept them back then we will distribute the cuts after slaughter,” he added.

A diplomatic crisis erupted between Turkey and the Netherlands after Turkish ministers were stopped from holding rallies to back constitutional changes which will be voted on next month.

The Turkish government said it may impose economic sanctions against the Netherlands, a major trade partner and investor, but has not given details.

You know, when I think of countries that produce top-quality food - Turkey isn't one of them.

No.  It most definitely is not.

bb1 wrote:You know, when I think of countries that produce top-quality food - Turkey isn't one of them.

I have had some wonderful meals in both rural and urban Turkey.    LL

The ones I've had have been less than memorable.   

lily wrote:The ones I've had have been less than memorable.   

Maybe you ate in restaurants? I am talking of meals prepared in private homes by Turkish friends. LL

Sorry, was just reading The Vlad Tepes Guide to Repelling Invading Turks.

bb1 wrote:Sorry, was just reading The Vlad Tepes Guide to Repelling Invading Turks.

Oh, that one, written by Abdul Abulbul Amir. while in a drunken stupor. He got a fee of 45 virgins as a fee for ghost writing it. !!

bb1 wrote:

Ah. you know all about Abdul then. He sued the municipality and won a further 50 virgins - he threatened to sing the Koran to them - takes 30 days to get from page one to the end. Nice guy, bit peculiar, said in his biography he wanted to be a criminal profiler .... he failed after a bad interview on Uppity News. LL

You mean he wanted to be like that Pat Brown?    

The Independent‏Verified account @Independent 3h3 hours ago
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