THE HAGUE, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Tugrul Turkes is not welcome to deliver a speech in the Netherlands next week, the Dutch government said Friday.
Turkes planned to attend a meeting organized by the Union of European Turkish Democrats (UETD) on Tuesday in Apeldoorn in the province of Gelderland to commemorate the failed Turkish coup on July 15, 2016.
"Last year's coup attempt was an unjustifiable attack on Turkish democratic institutions. The Netherlands has therefore directly condemned it," said the Dutch cabinet.
"However, given the current circumstances of the bilateral relationship between our countries, the cabinet considers a visit by Deputy Prime Minister Turkes or another member of the Turkish government at the moment not undesirable. This decision is a logical consequence of the events in March," the Dutch cabinet added.
Their objective remains to be normalizing diplomatic relations with Turkey, according to the Dutch cabinet. "We are prepared to talk about this with the Turkish authorities," said the Dutch government.
Tensions between the Netherlands and Turkey rose to a peak in March when the cabinet refused to let Turkish officials campaign in the Netherlands for a Turkish constitutional referendum.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavosoglu could not land in the Netherlands and Minister of Family Affairs Fatma Kaya had to leave Rotterdam and went to Germany. The incident led the two countries into a diplomatic row.
In March, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the Dutch government "Nazi remnants" after Turkish officials were denied entry. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte replied that Erdogan's "verbal attacks" were unacceptable and called for de-escalation of tensions.
