“Don’t they not know I am the mayor of a town that was destroyed by the Nazis?” Rotterdam mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb said after the Turkish president Erdogan called the Dutch ‘fascists’ and ‘Nazis’.
Erdogan is angry because the Dutch authorities did not allow his ministers to call on Turks in the Netherlands to vote in an upcoming referendum to give him more power.
All sense of historic consciousness was lost when young Dutch Turks called the police they were fighting in Rotterdam ‘Jews’: at the same time as Nazis?
The Dutch had been trying to diffuse the situation for days, when refusing to let the Turkish minister of foreign affairs Mevlüt Cavusoglu meet Turks in Rotterdam, citing safety and public order.
This failed when the Turkish minister started to threaten the Dutch; which resulted in the escalation and chaos Erdogan seemed to need to gain more support by creating a new enemy.
Over the backs of his fellow countrymen, for this can only harm the 500,000 Turks living in the Netherlands, at a time when anti-immigrant sentiments are rising with Geert Wilders and his extreme-right PVV gaining support.
Wilders immediately played along, recording a video calling Turkey an Islamic state which could never join the European Union, subtitled in Turkish and Arabic for effect.
For the skirmishes between two NATO partners should be considered in the light of the fact that both countries are hot on election fever, with the Dutch voting for a new parliament on Wednesday.
It allowed the Dutch Prime Minister Rutte to look strong and determined, in such a way that all parties supported his decision not to lose out during the elections, although he was clearly being led on by Erdogan.
For the Dutch to be called Nazis is painful, as the memory of its five years of occupation during the Second World War by Nazi Germany, is still alive – with yearly remembrance ceremonies to celebrate the freedom earned.
My fellow countrymen are proud of that freedom, of the liberal country they build from the ashes of the war, and the hospitality they offer for those who are suppressed and in need of a safe place.
Although the rise of extreme right has led to tightening immigration laws and demands on immigrants to learn the language and adapt to the country’s habits, still those who get a residency can earn the Dutch nationality and full electoral rights in five years.
These New Dutch are expected to feel part of the country, and outside influences on their communities are not welcomed, as in the seventies and eighties, when the Moroccan King Hassan II tried to control the growing community of Moroccans living in the Netherlands.
He had organizations formed to spy and report on their activities, wanting to stifle any opposition against his rule.
These associations (called Amicales) were not welcomed: not by the Dutch Moroccans, of whom many had been threatened or persecuted in their homeland, nor by the Dutch authorities who offered them safety.
Especially not, when the Amicales ordered Moroccans in Holland not to vote in any elections, thus working against the government policy of integration of migrants into the Dutch society.
The Turkish community in the Netherlands is even more split, but internal conflicts have reached precarious heights since the coup in Turkey of last summer, that was said to have been conducted by the Gülen movement.
Supporters of Gülen in Holland were harassed, bullied, and threatened, and mosques that are run by the Turkish government affiliated Diyanet organization are said to be at the heart of this.
In the past, Dutch authorities have watched carefully when the Milli Görüs movement filled stadiums with nationalist Islamists (which then united Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Fethullah Gülen) waving Turkish flags, but never interfered.
But since Erdogan’s long arm has become so visible, exporting internal Turkish conflicts, many Dutch politicians feel that the time of the watchful eye is over and action is needed to keep Turkish influence out.
And to keep Dutch Turks aware of the fact that they are living in the Netherlands, where they have the right to vote and enjoy freedom of speech – and not in Turkey, with its decreasing freedoms.
For three generations now, Turks have integrated in the Dutch society, visiting Turkey only for holidays, and like the Moroccan Dutch Rotterdam mayor Aboutaleb, they have been voted into the democratic system on every level.
It's estimated that there are about 100,000 Kurds in the Netherlands, 60 percent of whom are from Turkey.
Many Dutch Turks understand Erdogan is playing them, and worry that this will hurt their position, like the father of a friend who called on others to “take care your heart and head are in the Netherlands. Then Wilders cannot separate the society, and Erdogan cannot use you for his political game.”
But his advice might be too late; for the only ones likely to win from this mud throwing contest are the populists, and that would mean that the New Dutch are losing, and then so will the whole multilayered and multi-colored Dutch society.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.
