The Dutch have set a very dangerous precedent

What the Dutch did on Saturday against Turkish cabinet ministers is not only an act against our politicians and an attempt to stall the Turkish government, but is also a scandal of global proportions that will set a very dangerous diplomatic precedent in international relations.

The Netherlands prevented the flight of Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu to the country by closing its airspace to his plane and thus trying to stop him from addressing the Turkish population assembled outside the Turkish Consulate in Rotterdam. As if this was not enough, the Dutch authorities then took Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya into custody and then expelled her from the country. She had managed to reach Rotterdam via Germany to address the crowd at the consulate, but was prevented by a wall of police only 30 meters from her destination. She and her entourage were taken from their cars and sent to Germany. The Dutch police charged the peaceful crowd with dogs and mounted policemen.

The treatment toward the two Turkish ministers by a so-called civilized member of the international community will no doubt have international repercussions besides spoiling the 400-year-old relations between Turkey and the Netherlands.

The fact that a country like the Netherlands has conducted itself in a most uncivilized manner by detaining and expelling a minister of an allied country just because that person tried to address a peaceful crowd of fellow countrymen should be treated as a disaster in diplomatic terms as it now sets the stage for other "less civilized" countries to follow course.

International rules have been established to safeguard the well-being of emissaries, of envoys and state officials. If a country like the Netherlands starts violating these rules then can you expect a rogue state like North Korea to obey such rules?

Then we can now expect third world dictatorships to take matters into their own hands and follow the course of the Netherlands. This would be catastrophic and yet it is true that now a precedent has been set by a member of the European Union that is a prescription for disaster.

What if former U.S. President Barack Obama had taken a similar course like the Dutch in 2015 when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to visit Washington and address Congress only a few days before the Israeli crucial parliamentary elections in March 2015?

Netanyahu wanted to voice his opposition to the Iranian nuclear deal in Congress, but it was in fact an election ploy to win the backing of the right-wing voters back home. Obama told Netanyahu not to come to the U.S. and objected to him speaking on Capitol Hill. But a defiant Netanyahu came to Washington, addressed Congress and won the votes back home.

Obama could have ordered that U.S. airspace be closed off to the plane bringing Netanyahu. He could have cancelled its clearance to fly into Washington like the Dutch did to our foreign minister. Obama could have massed policemen outside Capitol Hill and prevented Netanyahu from entering the Congress building just as the Dutch police did to our minister. He could have ordered to have Netanyahu detained and expelled from the U.S. But Obama did not do any of these, because that is not what civilized countries do to each other and because it sets a very dangerous precedent that ruins the international diplomatic order. Can the Dutch comprehend this? Do they understand the terrible mistake they have committed?