Çavuşoğlu meets Dutch counterpart to mend ties

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu met the new Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra in Brussels on Dec. 5, Daily Sabah has learned from diplomatic sources.

The meeting was held on the sidelines of the NATO Foreign Ministers' meeting with the aim of revitalizing the bilateral relations between the two countries.

Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu's meeting with his Dutch counterpart came weeks after he met German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel in Antalya, where both ministers discussed the normalization of Turkish-German ties.

Diplomatic sources added that the meeting between the Turkish and Dutch foreign ministers was very constructive, and the ambassadors of each country were expected to take their positions in the capitals over the coming weeks.

Turkish-Dutch relations deteriorated earlier in March, prior to the Dutch general elections on March 14.

With the goal of attracting more votes from nationalists, the previous Dutch government exerted a number of undemocratic actions against Turkish politicians.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu's plane was barred from landing in the Netherlands on March 11, and a day after Turkish Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya was deported from the country in an undiplomatic manner.

The barring of Minister Sayan Kaya from entering the Turkish Consulate and the treatment of Turkish citizens in Rotterdam by the Dutch authorities faced harsh criticism from Ankara.

Following the incidents, the Turkish Foreign Ministry asked the off-duty Dutch ambassador in Ankara, who was on leave, not to return "for a while."

After months of the negotiations, the Dutch coalition government was formed on Oct. 26. The absence of Bert Koenders, who was seen as the one responsible for the heightened tension, in the new Dutch cabinet opened up the opportunity for the restoration of bilateral relations between the two sides.