Turkish minister says Wilders is ‘not relevant’

ANKARA – Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs Ahmet Davutoglu doesn’t find the stance of (right wing politician, FG) Wilders on Turkey relevant enough to discuss. Davutoglu preferred to emphasize the good relations between the Netherlands and Turkey during a press conference on the occasion of the visit to Turkey of his Dutch colleague Uri Rosenthal. ‘Our partner is the Dutch government, other parties are not relevant.’

Rosenthal is in Turkey for the Wittenburg Conference, a yearly meeting between Turkey and the Netherlands that started in 2008. Asked by a journalist for his opinion of Wilders, who supports the Dutch government and called Turkey a totalitarian state and Prime Minister Erdogan a ‘freak’, Davutoglu said: ‘Somebody who calls Turkey a totalitarian state is apparently not familiar with political terminology. He doesn’t know what a totalitarian regime is, and he knows nothing about Turkey. I don’t feel I have to comment on such remarks.’

For the benefit of the Turkish journalists present, Rosenthal took the opportunity to explain once again the workings of the Dutch minority government, which is supported by Wilders’ Freedom Party. . ‘We made no deal with the Freedom Party concerning foreign policy. For decisions regarding foreign policy we don’t depend on the Freedom Party but have to find a simple majority in parliament.’