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Netherlands Pulls Its Ambassador From Turkey in Diplomatic Fight

Netherlands Pulls Its Ambassador From Turkey in Diplomatic Fight

(Bloomberg) -- The Netherlands withdrew its ambassador from Turkey as talks between the two countries to mend a diplomatic struggle in 2017 over political campaigning were not resolved.

Talks at various levels at this stage “do not yet offer a perspective to normalizing the bilateral relations,” according to a statement from the Dutch Foreign Affairs ministry on Monday. As a result, the ambassador was officially pulled from the country -- a mostly symbolic move as the diplomat has not had access to Turkey since last year’s rift.

Relations dropped to a freezing point in March 2017, when days before general elections, the Dutch denied entry to Turkish ministers, who wanted to campaign in the Netherlands to expand the powers of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. A war of words erupted, with Turkey announcing it would bar the Dutch ambassador from re-entering the country in retaliation.

“Recent talks offered Turkey and the Netherlands an opportunity to come closer to each other, but we have not been able to agree on the way normalization should take place,” Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Halbe Zijlstra said in the statement.

Turkish Response

In the Turkish capital Ankara, the foreign ministry said the Netherlands had failed to take the steps needed to improve ties between the two countries.

Last year’s spat occurred days before a Dutch election that eventually, after a process that took more than 200 days to form a new four-party coalition government, allowed Prime Minister Mark Rutte to stay in power.

Rutte told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf late last year that he was seeking better relations with Turkey, though he also said he hadn’t been in contact with Erdogan since March. The premier said in the interview that he sat at a table with Erdogan during the G-20 summit in Hamburg, though the two leaders did not talk.

The statement from the Dutch government did not say who had been involved in the talks. As long as the Netherlands has no ambassador to Turkey, the Netherlands will also not issue permission for a new Turkish ambassador to take up duties in the Netherlands, according to the statement.

--With assistance from Taylan Bilgic Selcan Hacaoglu and Cagan Koc

To contact the reporter on this story: Joost Akkermans in Amsterdam at jakkermans@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Vidya Root at vroot@bloomberg.net, Kevin Costelloe, Zoe Schneeweiss

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.