German media: Vietnam kidnapping throughout Slovakia

It seems that last year’s visit of the Vietnamese public security minister and his entourage to Slovakia was used to cover for the abduction of a dissident Vietnamese entrepreneur who had previously emigrated to Germany.

During a meeting of Slovak and Vietnamese politicians at the Bôrik government hotel on July 26, 2017, a vehicle of people suspected of abducting a convicted Vietnamese politician and head of a state firm, Trinh Xuan Thanh, was probably parked at the hotel, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily writes. It allegedly happened three days after Thanh’s abduction, based on GPS records the German prosecution has at its disposal.

The Vietnamese secret service abducted him from Germany last summer, the Sme daily wrote on April 30, quoting German media. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung suggested that Slovakia might have helped Vietnam cover the abduction.

The Slovak Interior Ministry expressed concerns and admitted that the Vietnamese delegation had hastily changed its itinerary and therefore provided the delegation a government plane. Originally, the Vietnamese delegation was not even supposed to arrive to Slovakia but land in Vienna. Due to undisclosed reasons, they were re-routed to Prague, “because of this change and the general ensuing programme in Moscow, we offered the governmental plane to fly them from Prague to Bratislava, and then Moscow�?, Sme cited the Interior Ministry, without specifying who was onboard the plane.

What happened last summer?

Vietnamese Minister of Public Security, To Lam, held talks with then-interior minister of Slovakia, Robert Kaliňák, on July 26, 2017. The visit might have been misused for something other than working and friendly purposes, the ministerial press department wrote to the TASR newswire.

The Slovak Interior Ministry has cooperated with German investigation bodies.

“If the information provided by the German authorities is confirmed, we will view that as a manifestation of gross unfairness on the part of the Vietnamese partner, as an abuse of our hospitality for other than friendly relations, and as a destabilisation of the well-functioning bilateral relations between the two countries,�? the Interior Ministry wrote, as quoted by TASR, adding that the meeting was arranged during a previous visit the Slovak delegation paid to Vietnam with the aim of strengthening cooperation between Slovakia and the communist country.

They are also communicating with the Vietnamese side to check on the passengers onboard the plane on the given date.

Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini said on TV Markíza’s special talk show on April 29 that he will require a detailed report on whether or not Slovakia was involved in the kidnapping, adding that he has no detailed information as of now.

Thanh’s background

The German media reported that Slovakia might be involved in the case of abducting the Vietnamese entrepreneur Trinh Xuan Thanh, 51, kidnapped in the summer of 2017 from Germany. According to the German media, Thanh was probably kidnapped by the Vietnamese secret service. Germany linked the case with the visit of To Lam to Slovakia, as some suspects might have appeared in Lam’s presence during his visit to Bratislava.

Thanh, who was convicted of corruption and embezzling millions of dollars by a court in Vietnam, fled the Asian country in 2016 and sought political asylum in Germany. He had ties to the previous reformist Vietnamese PM and his troubles began after the situation changed in 2016.

Berlin accused Vietnam of abducting Thanh, calling it a violation of German and international law. Vietnam denied the abduction allegation and says Thanh returned voluntarily, TASR wrote.

Vietnam is an important partner

The ruling Smer party considers Vietnam a crucial economic partner, even more important than the USA, as Economy Minister Peter Žiga said last year, as reported by the Denník N daily . It also added that the Vietnamese from the community living in Slovakia, Le Hong Quand, a special advisor of then-Slovak PM Robert Fico, invited the companies Viettel, MobiFone and VNPT to invest in Slovakia.

Currently, he is the top diplomat representing Slovakia in Vietnam, a chargé d’affaires, since the ambassadorial post is vacant. Le Hong Quand has Slovak citizenship but it is not clear how he got to work at the embassy in Hanoi, according to Denník N.

30. Apr 2018 at 14:38 | Compiled by Spectator staff </s> Czech Republic's President Milos Zeman (2nd, L) is welcomed by his Vietnamese counterpart Tran Dai Quang in Hanoi June 7, 2017. Photo by Reuters/Kham

Vietnam has agreed to open a direct air route to the Czech Republic and offer visa waivers to its citizens for up to 15 days.

Czech President Milos Zeman told a press briefing on Wednesday in Hanoi that he and his Vietnamese counterpart Tran Dai Quang had agreed on single entry visa exemptions for Czech citizens visiting Vietnam and a direct flight between Prague and Ho Chi Minh City to boost tourism, Vietnam News Agency reported.

He also said the republic will open a consulate in Ho Chi Minh City soon.

No specific dates for the air service and the consular opening were revealed in the briefing.

Zeman was accompanied by 68 Czech businesspeople on his two-day visit to Vietnam. An AP report said seven deals including a $20 million beach resort project were signed during the trip.

Vietnam received more than 10 million foreign arrivals last year, up 26 percent from the previous year. Arrivals continued to increase nearly 30 percent during the first five months this year, according to official data.

The country has set a target of welcoming 20 million foreign visitors in 2020 and developing tourism into a key economic sector, but its visa policy has been criticized by tourism industry groups as one of the toughest in Asia.

The country recently announced it would renew its 15-day visa exemption policy for citizens from Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Spain until the end of June 2018.

Tourism industry groups have been urging the government to open up its visa policy to major markets such as Australia, Canada and India, as well as Eastern European countries including the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, and former Soviet states Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

While the Czech Republic has become the 23rd country to be granted visa waivers by Vietnam, the rest will simply have to wait. </s> Professional hitmen, deadly bullets to the head, mayhem, enormous crowds marching in anger, a government in meltdown, and behind it all, apparently, the 'Ndrangheta, the ferocious Calabrian mafia.

But this is not Italy. This is little Slovakia, a country of just 5.4 million nestled in central Europe, sharing borders with the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Austria.

Once it was part of Czechoslovakia and Czechoslovakia was part of the communist empire. The empire crumbled and in 1992 Slovakia became independent. In 2004 it joined the European Union.

Life improved. Prime Minister Robert Fico took to calling his country "a little Slavic tiger." It is now a tiger in the mire, covered with the mud of murder and corruption.

Fico, it turns out, was at the heart of the problem. Or, more precisely, it was his decision to hire Maria Troskova as his government assistant in 2015 that set the sad and sordid story in motion. She came recommended by the secretary of a government security council for whom she had worked briefly.

Troskova was 27 and had once been a contestant in the Miss Universe contest. She had no obvious qualifications to be a prime ministerial assistant and Fico refused to offer any details about her duties. She did, however, have connections.

She had once worked as an assistant to a former politician, Pavol Rusko, who owned a television station. He was recently arrested for allegedly hiring an assassin to kill his business partner in the 1990s.

She also knew Antonino Vadala, an Italian businessman who owned a network of agricultural companies in Slovakia. In fact she had been his business partner.

That partnership set a Slovak journalist, Jan Kuciak, on an investigative hunt. He discovered that Vadala was well known to the Italian police. They had identified him as a member of 'Ndrangheta, an organized crime group, and a likely drug "broker" for its international trade.

Vadala was also caught on wiretaps discussing where to hide a drug trafficker and murderer who was later caught and sentenced to life in prison.

Kuciak was working with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a multi-country co-operative. But before he could publish his findings, he and his fiancée, Martina Kusnirova, were found in their house on Feb. 25. Each had been shot in the head. The killers appeared to be professionals.

The country was stunned. For those old enough to remember, it brought back memories of the blood-spattered 1990s under the authoritarian but corrupt government of Vladimir Meciar.

"In those days there were cadavers in the streets. Car bombs were exploding every week," Slovak philosopher Fedor Blascak, told the Czech paper Lidové Noviny. "People are terrified of returning to that brutal and stupid time."

The day after the murders, to head off criticism, Fico went on national television and offered a €1 million reward (about $1.6 million) for information about those who ordered the killings. He had the bills right there for good measure, piled on a table.

As theatre, it backfired. "Usually it's the Russian mafia that puts on that kind of show," Arpad Soltesz, a Slovak journalist, told Le Monde. "Not the head of a government in the European Union. That level of cynicism enraged everyone."

That rage filled the streets. On March 2, the day of the funerals of Kuciak and his fiancee, what is believed to be the largest crowd since the fall of communism filled the streets. People demanded a government cleanout.

The implosion began within days. Troskova stepped aside. Two ministers and the security council secretary resigned.

But Fico clung on. He attacked Slovakia's ceremonial president, Andrej Kiska, who had called for early elections, and suggested Kiska was part of a vague international conspiracy because he had met the billionaire financier George Soros in New York.

Soros is the founder of the Open Society Foundation to promote democracy in countries emerging from autocracy. Fico called him "a man of doubtful reputation."

It didn't work. Fico was forced from office earlier this week but clung to his post as leader of his party, insisting he would continue to play an active political role. The following day, tens of thousands of people again filled the streets demanding new elections.

And the 'Ndrangheta? As many Slovaks feared, the murder investigation seemed to be going nowhere. A delegation of European MPs called for Europol to step in to take it over.

Whether the murderers and their bosses will ever be caught is somewhat secondary to the main problem, according Roberto Saviano. He is the author of Gomorrah, an investigative book on the 'Ndrangheta. Since its publication in 2006 he has been in hiding, under Italian police protection.

Saviano underlines in an article published on May 2 in the Italian daily La Repubblica that the Calabrian mafia have long had tight links with Slovakia going back to communist times. The 'Ndrangheta particularly liked a cheaper, more lethal version of the Kalashnikov submachine gun invented in Czechoslovakia. With the breakup of the country ,'Ndrangheta men bought thousands of these weapons from military depots and made a tidy profit selling them.

This was one of the weapons used by the killers in the Charlie Hebdo massacre of 12 people in January 2015 in Paris.

What the mafias couldn't do under communism in Slovakia was buy property. That changed in the 1990s and they quickly moved in.

Saviano says that Slovakia, and several of its neighbours, are transit countries for 'Ndrangheta heroin coming from Afghanistan.

Bribes, payoffs and friends with jobs in high places kept the system out of the public eye. When journalists started getting too close, other means were called for.

"They are sending a message," Saviano said. "You are all in our sights. We can wipe out people like you."

It seems unlikely that a change of ministers, or even a change of government, can root that out. </s> Prague – Czech leaders sought to stave off China’s anger in a statement on Tuesday, a day after exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama arrived in Prague.

The statement came as Chinese firms poured fresh investment into the Czech Republic, for a value expected to reach a total of several billion euros.

The Czech president, prime minister and two parliamentary speakers said that the EU nation “respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of China.

“We consider the relationships between our countries and their remarkable development in recent years most beneficial for both parties,” the statement added.

Czech President Milos Zeman, an ex-Communist in office since 2013, has promoted friendly relations with both Russia and China.

Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of supporting separatism and violence in Tibet, a region it has ruled since 1951.

The Dalai Lama fled to India after a failed uprising in 1959, but is still deeply revered by many Tibetans in China and beyond.

He arrived in Prague on Monday to attend the pro-democracy Forum 2000 conference, co-founded in 1996 by former Czech president Vaclav Havel.

Since Havel died in 2011, Czech foreign policy has taken a turn eastwards.

China’s CEFC, one of the country’s top 10 private firms, recently spent around a billion euros on stakes in a Czech airline, a brewery, two media groups and a top football team.

During his visit to Prague, the Dalai Lama met politicians from the small centrist Christian Democrats party, the junior partner in the leftist-led coalition government.

“The private activities of some Czech politicians do not signal a change in the Czech Republic’s official policy and we would consider it unfortunate if someone perceived them as such,” said the leaders.

Before coming to Prague, the Tibetan spiritual leader met Slovak President Andrej Kiska in Bratislava, angering Beijing which threatened retaliation, according to local media. </s> People in Bratislava hold a vigil for murdered Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak and his partner Martina Kusnirova. Photo: Vladimir Simicek/AFP

Slovak police said on Thursday they detained several Italian businessmen named by murdered journalist Jan Kuciak as having mafia connections in an explosive investigative report on alleged high-level corruption.

"I can confirm that these raids and detentions are being carried out in several places," police commander Tibor Gaspar told reporters.

He said those taken into custody during raids in the eastern town of Michalovice were "persons mentioned" by Kuciak in connection with the "Italian track".

Slovak media reported that among those held was businessman Antonino Vadala, the owner of several companies, and several relatives, alleged by Kuciak to have links to Italy's notorious 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate and contacts in the Slovak government.

"Physical evidence and individuals are being detained, they will be interrogated," Gaspar said.
• Nearly 200 journalists in Italy are under police protection
• Five ways to fight the Italian mafia

An article by Kuciak, which was posthumously published Wednesday by aktuality.sk, focused on fraud cases allegedly involving Vadala, and said he was linked to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico's entourage.

Maria Troskova, a close Fico aide, was forced out after Kuciak alleged she had ties to Vadala, purportedly involved with the 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate.

Kuciak, 27, and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova were found shot dead at his home on Sunday, raising concerns about media freedoms and corruption in Slovakia and sparking a wave of international condemnation.

A protest in the capital Bratislava called by a conservative opposition party drew around 1,000 people on Wednesday night.

The march was the first of several planned to honour Kuciak and protest against graft in the small EU state. Other anti-corruption protests are being planned across Slovakia and in Prague, London and The Hague for Friday.



 A memorial to journalist Jan Kuciak in his newsroom. Photo: Vladimir Simicek/AFP </s> Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra at the 2017 EU Eastern Partnership Summit | Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images Dutch foreign minister admits to lying about meeting Vladimir Putin Halbe Zijlstra previously claimed he overheard the Russian president talking about his expansionist ambitions at a gathering in 2006.

Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra has come under fire for lying about attending a meeting with Vladimir Putin in 2006, Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant reported Monday.

At a party conference in 2016, the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) politician claimed he was present at a 2006 meeting in which the Russian president laid out plans to expand the country's borders and create a "Great Russia" that would include Belarus, Ukraine, the Baltic states and possibly Kazakhstan. Zijlstra, an employee of oil company Shell at the time, had traveled to Russia with Jeroen van der Veer, then CEO of the company.

Zijlstra was forced to set the record straight on his attendance at the meeting after his colleagues raised doubts about his account, De Volkskrant reported. The minister admitted he was not in fact in the room, but borrowed the story from a source. Zijlstra claimed he wanted to tell the story because of its "geopolitical importance" and presented it as his own in order to "protect" the source.

His decision was "not a smart move," he admitted. "I should have done this differently."

The disclosure comes at an inconvenient time for Zijlstra, as he heads to Moscow on Tuesday to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The ministers are expected to discuss the downing of MH17, the plane that was shot down while flying over Ukraine in 2014, sparking a diplomatic crisis between the two countries. Prime Minister Mark Rutte government has previously accused Russia of spreading fake news about the incident.

Geert Wilders' far-right Party for Freedom has called on Zijlstra to take part in a parliamentary debate before he leaves, and joined other opposition parties in questioning his integrity.

Rutte, whom Zijlstra said was informed of the story some weeks ago, defended the foreign minister saying he remains "credible," because the content of the story is "not up for discussion," NOS reported. </s> BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) - Slovakia's prosecutor general has asked Italian authorities to create a joint investigative team with their Slovak counterparts in the case of the slaying of a journalist and his fiancee that triggered a serious political crisis.

Jaromir Ciznar says he expects such a team's investigation into the slayings of Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova would be faster, more complex and more effective.

Kuciak was reporting on alleged Italian mafia ties to associates of then-Prime Minister Robert Fico, and corruption scandals linked to his leftist Smer Social Democracy party.

Candles are placed in memory of slain journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova as Slovaks celebrate the resignation of Prime Minister Robert Fico and his government as a way out of the political crisis triggered by the slayings of an investigative journalist and his fiancee, during a rally in Bratislava, Slovakia, Friday, March 16, 2018.(AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

The Slovaks previously said the FBI, Britain's Scotland Yard, Europol and police forces from Italy and the Czech Republic are helping with the investigation.

Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters rallied across Slovakia Friday to demand an early election.

People celebrate the resignation of Prime Minister Robert Fico and his government as a way out of the political crisis triggered by the slayings of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova, during a rally in Bratislava, Slovakia, Friday, March 16, 2018.(AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic) </s> ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte says he was forced to keep two Turkish ministers from traveling within the Netherlands and to bar them from campaigning among Turkish voters because Ankara had threatened sanctions against his government.

Rutte said Sunday, “We can never do business under this kind of blackmail.”

The prime minister says he was shocked to see one of the ministers try to get to a Rotterdam rally by car after the government had made clear she was not welcome.

Turkey’s minister of family affairs was escorted back to the German border after a long standoff outside the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam.

Earlier, the Dutch government had withdrawn the landing rights of the plane carrying Turkey’s foreign minister.

The ministers planned to urge Turkish expatriates to back the referendum, which would expand the president’s powers. </s> The Latest on Dutch barring Turkish foreign minister (all times local):

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim says his country will strongly respond to Dutch authorities' "unacceptable treatment" toward Turkish ministers who were prevented from addressing Turkish citizens in the Netherlands.

In a written statement released early on Sunday, Yildirim also urged Turkish nationals living in Europe to remain calm and not fall for provocations. He also asked them to cast their votes in the April 16 referendum saying it would be best response to the European nations.

He said: "There will be a stronger reprisal against the unacceptable treatment toward Turkey and ministers who have diplomatic immunity."

Yildirim added: "Our so-called European friends who speak of democracy, freedom of expression and human rights have failed their class."

Turkey's family affairs minister says Dutch authorities are escorting her to the border with Germany in a manner that "tramples on all democratic and human values."

Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya said through her twitter account early on Sunday that she was being taken to the town of Nijmegen, near the border with Germany, adding that she condemned the Dutch authorities' action in "the name of all of our citizens."

Kaya wrote: "the whole world must take action against this fascist practice! Such a treatment against a woman minister cannot be accepted."

Rotterdam Ahmed Aboutaleb said early Sunday that the Turkish family affairs minister is being escorted back to the German border from where she came after she tried to reach the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam against the wishes of the Dutch government.

"The minister is on her way to Germany," Aboutaleb said after an extraordinary standoff between a minister from a NATO ally and an overwhelming police force.

"She was called an unwanted foreigner by the government and the rules say you send someone back to the country she came from," he said.

Hundreds of pro-Turkey protesters scuffled with police as authorities tried to end a demonstration at the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam, where a Turkish minister fruitlessly tried to enter the compound.

At one stage, protesters were throwing bottles and mobbing police vehicles as they moved away from the consulate in central Rotterdam. But soon, police charged on horseback and moved forward with batons wielding.

It was unclear if people were detained or injured.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says he has called the European Union commission's vice-president asking that he urge the Dutch prime minister to put an end to the "disgrace" against Turkish ministers who have been barred from attending rallies.

In a telephone interview with A Haber television, Cavusoglu said he told Frans Timmermans — a former Dutch politician — that the events were "getting out of control."

Cavusoglu said Turkey did not wish to escalate tensions but that Ankara "would take all necessary measures" against the Netherlands.

Foreign Ministry officials said Cavusoglu held three separate conversations with Timmermans and also spoke with the EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

Separately, Cavusoglu told state-run TRT television that European nations were obstructing campaigning for a "yes" vote in an upcoming referendum on expanding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's power because they feared the emergence of a "stable, free and independent Turkey."

The mayor of Rotterdam issued an emergency order late Saturday in an attempt to contain a pro-Turkish demonstration outside the consulate which has turned into a flashpoint of the worsening relations between the Netherlands and Turkey.

Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb said he needed special powers to assure security throughout the center of the city fearing that more people would join the demonstration and there was "serious concern" that riots might ensue.

Under the powers, it is easier for authorities to keep people away from diplomatic compounds like the consulate.

Dutch authorities told the Minister of Family and Social Policies Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya that she should take "the shortest way to Germany" where she came from as she sought to enter her consulate in Rotterdam.

TV video on the NOS network showed the standoff between the ministerial convoy and the Rotterdam police, which was translated between an officer and the minister. After being told to return with her convoy, Kaya retorted sharply, saying "I will go to the consulate building. That is a building belonging to my country and I am a minister of that country."

She continued that "there is no such international practice. I don't accept that decision, I reject it and I won't return to Germany."

Close to the consulate, a protest of about 1,000 pro-Turkish demonstrators continued even though the authorities were making slow protest in driving them away.

Hundreds of protesters have gathered near the Dutch Embassy in the Turkish capital in Ankara shouting slogans against the Netherlands for barring Turkish ministers from addressing rallies there.

Police sealed off the entrance to Holland Street, where the embassy is located. Still, around 500 people waived Turkish and Ottoman flags near the embassy building.

State-run TRT television said some protesters hurled eggs toward the building but were warned to keep the protest peaceful.

Turkey's foreign minister has arrived in France for a political rally, after being barred from the Netherlands amid growing diplomatic tensions between Turkey and EU nations.

Mevlut Cavusoglu tweeted Saturday night that he is in the eastern French city of Metz "to have a meeting with our Consuls General and to gather with our citizens."

French officials said a rally by Cavusoglu planned for Sunday with the local Turkish population has been authorized and will be allowed to take place unless it represents a threat to public order.

Dutch authorities refused to allow Cavusoglu to land in Rotterdam because of objections to his intention to rally for a Turkish referendum on constitutional reforms to expand presidential powers, which the Dutch see as a step backward from democracy.

Turkey's deputy prime minister says that Dutch authorities are preventing the Turkish minister for family affairs from reaching the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam or joining Turkish protesters there.

Numan Kurtulmus accused the Dutch authorities of "shameless and rude" behavior, adding that Ankara considers the moves against Minister of Family and Social Policies Betul Sayan Kaya as acts against "the whole of Turkey."

Kurtulmus told CNN-Turk television: "let's hope they soon return to their senses."

He predicted that the Dutch government would feel "shame" and apologize to Turkey.

A group of protesters has gathered outside the Dutch consulate, located on the main pedestrian thoroughfare in Istanbul, singing the Turkish national anthem and chanting slogans.

Footage from private Dogan news agency showed special operations and riot police outside the consulate, which has been closed off due to security reasons.

The crowd, waving Turkish flags, chanted slogans Saturday night that included "Netherlands, don't be surprised and don't test our patience," ''God is great," ''Barbarian Europe" and "Dictator Netherlands will pay."

A Turkish foreign ministry official says that access to and from the Dutch Embassy in Ankara and the consulate in Istanbul has been closed off for security reasons.

The official said entries and exits were closed at the two locations. Similar precautions were taken at the Dutch charge d'affaires' house and the ambassador's residence. He didn't provide any further information and spoke on customary condition of anonymity.

Earlier Saturday, the Foreign Ministry summoned the charge d'affaires to protest the country's decision to withdraw the flight permit of Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

The Turkish foreign ministry says that it doesn't want to see the Dutch ambassador, who is out of the country, to return to his post for some time because of the increasingly divisive dispute with the Netherlands.

The Netherlands has forced the Turkish foreign minister to stay out of the Netherlands and thus banned him from speaking about next month's referendum to expand the powers of the Turkish president.

The Turkish foreign ministry statement says that "we have expressed to our Dutch counterparts that this grave decision against Turkey and the Turkish society in the Netherlands would lead to serious consequences in our diplomatic, political, economic and our other relations."

About 100 pro-Turkish demonstrators have gathered outside the Turkish Consulate in Rotterdam at dusk with flags in a peaceful protest following the acrimonious words between both governments. The crowd is standing near the consulate's entrance, with Rotterdam police putting up railings to keep anyone from getting too close.

The protest came after the Dutch government barred the Turkish foreign minister from landing in the Netherlands to address a rally in support of a Turkish referendum to extend the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

As the crowd grew, so did the Dutch security force outside the consulate and at one point, a chopper came hovering overhead.

Turkey's foreign minister says that the Dutch decision to deny his plane landing permission for him to enter the Netherlands "is a scandal in every way and cannot be accepted."

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was due to visit Rotterdam on Saturday to campaign for a referendum next month on constitutional reforms in Turkey. The Dutch government says that it withdrew the permission because of "risks to public order and security."

Cavusoglu, speaking at Istanbul's airport, said that the Dutch are trying to prevent Turkish officials from meeting voters in Europe.

He said: "So they cancelled it due to security concerns, what, so is the minister a terrorist?"

The minister added: "We will give them the response they deserve."

He also said that "we have received many supportive messages from the Netherlands, saying they don't agree with their government's racist, fascist policies."

Around 100 people have marched in Istanbul to protest Netherlands' decision to bar Turkey's foreign minister from campaigning.

The demonstrators have laid a black wreath in front of the Dutch Consulate amid a heavy police presence.

The pro-government group said in a statement, "Today we see the Dutch government making decisions that hurt the Turkish nation."

Emphasizing freedom of assembly and expression, the group said, "Netherlands has made big mistakes towards Turkey's ministers in terms of democratic rights and freedoms."

The group chanted "God is Great" and other slogans before dispersing.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim criticized Netherlands' decision, calling on Europe to cease meddling in Turkey's affairs.

Speaking at a rally in western Turkey, Yildirim said: "They are banning our ministers and lawmakers who were going there to meet our citizens living abroad, they are creating obstacles."

The prime minister added: "Hey Europe, please don't meddle in Turkey's internal affairs and politics and don't take a side."

The Turkish government accuses Germany and Netherlands of preventing campaigns in order to influence a "no" vote in the referendum.

The organizers of the planned rally in Rotterdam with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu appealed for calm after the Dutch government barred him from coming to campaign for next month's referendum in Turkey.

The organizers said: "We are asking all our citizens to stay home, calm and subdued."

The organizers said that "the decision is undemocratic and counter to the freedom of assembly and freedom of expression." Since the rally was called off, they said Turkish-Dutch citizens who have a right to vote in the referendum "would give a fitting answer" in the vote, which the Dutch government sees as a step backward in the democratic process in Turkey.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte called a Turkish allegation that the Dutch acted like "fascists" by banning the foreign minister from entering the Netherlands to campaign "a crazy remark."

"I understand they are angry but this is of course way out of line," Rutte said in the southern Netherlands during a campaign rally for next Wednesday's Dutch elections.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Dutch "do not know politics or international diplomacy" and added, "these Nazi remnants, they are fascists."

Rutte said it was not right "for Turkish ministers to campaign in the Netherlands among Dutch people —with potentially a Turkish passport, yes — but first of all Dutch people."

Despite the angry words, Rutte said it was important to keep good relations with Turkey.

"We will do everything to keep the relations with Turkey as good as possible, as strong as possible," Rutte said. The Netherlands and Turkey are NATO allies and, through the European Union, it also has a major agreement with Ankara on migration flows.

Turkey's EU Minister Omer Celik has tweeted that the decision to block a visit by the Turkish foreign minister "will go down in history as a dark spot on the Netherlands' democracy and diplomacy."

Celik said: "The Netherlands' decision to cancel the flight permit of our foreign minister is not befitting of friendship. This decision does not suit our alliance and our friendship that has spanned centuries. If racist Geert Wilders were in power in the Netherlands, he'd make such a decision."

Kemal Kilicdaroglu the leader of Turkey's main opposition party criticized the Dutch decision and said, "This is not correct."

He added: "Those who defend democracy would not do such things. You'll call yourself a democrat and then not permit the flight of a minister of the Turkish Republic?"

The Dutch government on Saturday withdrew landing permission for the Turkish foreign minister's aircraft, drawing a furious reaction the Turkish president and escalating a diplomatic dispute between the two NATO allies over campaigning for a Turkish referendum on constitutional reform.

The Dutch government said in a statement it had withdrawn the permission because of "risks to public order and security" caused by the proposed visit of Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to Rotterdam.

"You can stop our foreign minister's plane all you want, let's see how your planes will come to Turkey from now on," Erdogan said at a rally in Istanbul.
The German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports that last year’s visit of the Vietnamese public security minister and his entourage to Slovakia was used to cover for the abduction of a dissident Vietnamese entrepreneur Trịnh Xuân Thanh who had previously emigrated to Germany.