Turkish FM blasts Dutch authorities

EDIRNE, Turkey

The Turkish foreign minister on Tuesday lambasted Dutch authorities for the dispersion of Turkish citizens on Saturday night who had gathered to support the family minister who was escorted out of the Netherlands.

His comments came after the Netherlands' refusal this weekend to let him and Family Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya address Turkish nationals in Rotterdam ahead of the April 16 constitutional referendum.

"You do not grant our citizens freedom of travel," he told Journalists in Turkey’s northwest province of Edirne. "You give freedom to terrorists, members of the PKK, [far left group] DHKP/C and the [Fetullah Terror Organization] FETO. This is your understanding of freedom.”

Characterizing the West's approach as “hypocrisy”, he went on to say: “We intercepted 4,000 people who wanted to join Daesh. We extradited them to the countries [they came from]. Then we saw some of them coming back to [our] airports.”

On Saturday, Dutch authorities first refused to allow Cavusoglu’s flight to land. Separately, the Turkish family minister Kaya was prevented from entering the Turkish consulate in the port city by police and escorted to the German border to be deported.

When Turkish citizens in Rotterdam tried to protest, they were met by police using batons, dogs and water cannons, in what some analysts called a disproportionate use of force.

*Reporting by Hakan Mehmet Sahin; Writing by Ahmet Sait Akcay