Shadow of Srebrenica still hovers over the Netherlands, Erdoğan says
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan yesterday slammed the Netherlands' undemocratic treatment of the Turkish ministerial convoy in the Dutch city of Rotterdam by reminding the country of its role in the Srebrenica genocide of Bosniaks, Muslim Bosnians, in 1995.
Speaking at an event in Ankara commemorating March 14 Medicine Day, Erdoğan said that the Netherlands' attitude toward Turkish Family Minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya's convoy was not surprising.
''The Netherlands did not surprise us, we were already aware of their low morality and level of civilization and the manners of the Dutch. We know it from the role they played in the Srebrenica genocide,'' the Turkish president said, referring to Dutch peacekeeper forces who allowed Serbian death squads to enter the so-called ''safe enclave,'' and round up the Bosniaks before proceeding to perform mass killings.
''Nobody should try to give us lessons on morality, especially not those who have blood on their hands,'' Erdoğan added.
The ongoing row between Turkey and the Netherlands escalated into a diplomatic crisis after Dutch authorities blocked the family minister's convoy from entering the Turkish Consulate in Rotterdam on Saturday, following the Dutch government's decision to deny landing permission to the plane carrying Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu earlier that day.
Turkey will go to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) over the Netherlands' treatment toward Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya, the minister of family and social policies, President Erdoğan also said on Monday evening during a televised interview.
(continued, pot calling kettle black...)
