- Oct 16, 2015
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Dutch riot police break up Turkish protests in Rotterdam
"Dutch riot police have broken up a protest by more than 1,000 supporters of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after diplomatic tensions between Turkey and the Netherlands.
Demonstrators had gathered outside the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam to show support for Mr Erdogan after two Turkish ministers were prevented from addressing a rally in the Dutch city ahead of Turkey's referendum next month."
For those who don't know, every year when there is an election in Turkey, President Erdogan likes to send out his foreign ministers to whip up support with Turks who aren't living in Turkey to back him up in all of his endeavours. Even though his own country's laws forbid him to do so:
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY
PART TWO
CHAPTER FOUR
POLITICAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES
B. Principles to be Observed by Political Parties
ARTICLE 69. (As amended on October 17, 2001)
Political parties shall not engage in commercial activities.
The referendum hopes to expand Erdogan's powers in Turkey in ways they think will 'streamline' Turkish government and to help the country fight terrorism, as explained here in this BBC article:
Why is Turkey holding a referendum?
However, in a country where an attempted military coup occurred in July of last year, which saw 140,000 people arrested, dismissed or suspended from their jobs, which is ranked 151 out of 180 in the world ranking of the freedom of press index by Reporters Without Borders, a country which has done incredibly little to help fight ISIS and has actually done more to aid the group than fight it, a country which says it is illegal to even say that the Armenian Genocide occurred when it blatantly did, can we really trust Erdogan to actually create anything close to a functioning democracy when his current political system is much more inline with an actual fascist state?
And as a kicker, Erdogan decided to play the playground game by calling the Netherlands "Nazi remnants" and promising "retaliations against Dutch diplomatic flights".
"Dutch riot police have broken up a protest by more than 1,000 supporters of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after diplomatic tensions between Turkey and the Netherlands.
Demonstrators had gathered outside the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam to show support for Mr Erdogan after two Turkish ministers were prevented from addressing a rally in the Dutch city ahead of Turkey's referendum next month."
For those who don't know, every year when there is an election in Turkey, President Erdogan likes to send out his foreign ministers to whip up support with Turks who aren't living in Turkey to back him up in all of his endeavours. Even though his own country's laws forbid him to do so:
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY
PART TWO
CHAPTER FOUR
POLITICAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES
B. Principles to be Observed by Political Parties
ARTICLE 69. (As amended on October 17, 2001)
Political parties shall not engage in commercial activities.
The referendum hopes to expand Erdogan's powers in Turkey in ways they think will 'streamline' Turkish government and to help the country fight terrorism, as explained here in this BBC article:
Why is Turkey holding a referendum?
However, in a country where an attempted military coup occurred in July of last year, which saw 140,000 people arrested, dismissed or suspended from their jobs, which is ranked 151 out of 180 in the world ranking of the freedom of press index by Reporters Without Borders, a country which has done incredibly little to help fight ISIS and has actually done more to aid the group than fight it, a country which says it is illegal to even say that the Armenian Genocide occurred when it blatantly did, can we really trust Erdogan to actually create anything close to a functioning democracy when his current political system is much more inline with an actual fascist state?
And as a kicker, Erdogan decided to play the playground game by calling the Netherlands "Nazi remnants" and promising "retaliations against Dutch diplomatic flights".
