Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, has claimed that “holy wars will soon begin in Europe.” The minister’s words come just one day after the Dutch elections in which firebrand anti-Islam far-right politician Geert Wilders lost to incumbent Prime Minister Mark Rutte. According to Cavusoglu, the Dutch far-right, center-right, and left are all the same.
“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,” said the foreign minister. “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 added in an ominous message predicting the collapse of the liberal democratic European project.
As a political ally of Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Cavusoglu is committed to demonizing the Netherlands following the diplomatic row that erupted after the Dutch government denied entry to Turkish officials who wished to campaign for domestic causes. In fact, over the weekend, Cavusoglu’s own plane was barred from landing in the Netherlands when he made clear that his intentions were to galvanize popular support among Turkish nationals for a Turkish referendum aimed at expanding the powers of dictatorial Islamist President Erdogan.
Tensions between the two countries hit a boiling point when Erdogan compared the Dutch government to “Nazis” and “fascists,” prompting Prime Minister Rutte to dismiss the Erdogan government as unhinged.
