The Dutch cabinet does not want Turkish deputy prime minister Tugrul Türkes to speak in Apeldoorn in memory of people who died in the failed Turkish coup in July last year, reports the AD on Friday.

He had intended to talk during a meeting of the UETD organisation, a lobbying organisation that has been linked to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s AK party.

But the AD claims that a statement from the ministry of foreign affairs has said that ‘given the current circumstances in bilateral relations between our countries’, the Dutch government does not wish for the deputy prime minister or another Turkish cabinet minister to come to the Netherlands.

Just before Dutch elections this year, the Netherlands’ refusal to let the Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu address a rally in Rotterdam, and subsequent apparent expulsion of its families minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya from the country sparked a riot, then an escalating war of words with Ankara.

The Dutch government, according to the AD, wants to de-escalate tensions and is ready to talk to the Turkish government.

NOS reported on Friday afternoon that the UETD announced that the event will go ahead, with or without the deputy prime minister’s presence. The municipal council has yet to give a formal response.