Tusk says Turkey is ‘detached from reality’ in row with Dutch
Council of ministers president Donald Tusk and European Commission chairman Jean-Claude Juncker both made statements supporting the Netherlands in its diplomatic row with Turkey on Wednesday, Dutch media reported.
‘Rotterdam destroyed by Nazis. Today w/ Moroccan-born mayor. Anyone seeing fascism there is detached from reality. We are Europeans & proud,’ Tusk said on Twitter.
Broadcaster NOS quoted Juncker as saying he had been ‘scandalised’ by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Nazi allegations.
Speaking in the European parliament, Juncker said: ‘My home country, Luxembourg, was occupied by the Nazis. Our people were suffering. My father was forced into the German army together with his three brothers.
‘If you are establishing a comparison of that period with our times, this is totally unacceptable – and the one who is doing this is taking distance from Europe and not trying to enter the European Union,’ Juncker said.
The row between the Netherlands and Turkey erupted at the weekend when the Netherlands banned to Turkish ministers from addressing rallies in support of a referendum to give more powers to Erdogan.
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