Dutch waste huge opportunity in Turkey

A delegation of the Dutch parliament has cancelled its trip to Turkey because the government there refused to host right-wing populist Geert Wilders. This means it will miss the chance to become acquainted with the diversity of opinion in Turkey, the left-leaning opinion forum Joop.nl writes: "This cancellation speaks of an enormous lack of respect towards trade unions, human rights organisations and fellow MPs [in Turkey]. Obviously the parliamentarians are only interested in brief conversations and photocalls with Turkish ministers rather than genuine content debates with politicians and activists. … They could have voiced their criticism of all the irregularities in Turkey in the full glare of the Turkish media. … What a waste of an opportunity to bring the Dutch doubts about Turkey to the public's attention and inform themselves about the broad spectrum of Turkish opinion."

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