AMSTERDAM _ A diplomatic dispute between Turkey and the Netherlands worsened Sunday as foreign ministers from both countries exchanged more denunciations.
Protests broke out in Rotterdam Saturday night after Turkish Family Affairs Minister Fatma Kaya was denied entry to Turkey's consulate in the city and escorted back to the border with Germany.
"An apology won't suffice," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in France. "There are steps we'll take, we're planning them."
Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said the Netherlands was forced to draw a "red line" and had nothing to apologize for.
The dispute comes during hard-fought electoral contests in both countries. The Dutch vote March 15 with Prime Minister Mark Rutte fighting off a challenge from anti-Islam leader Geert Wilders. Erdogan plans to hold a referendum in April to transform the Turkish presidency into the nation's top executive post.
Cavusoglu repeated a slur first made by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that "even in Nazi times we didn't see anything like this."
A protester Sunday took down the Dutch flag flying over the consulate in Istanbul and replaced it with a Turkish flag, Agence France-Presse reported. citing its reporter at the scene. A Turkish official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, disputed the claim, saying the flag was replaced by someone from inside the consulate. Footage of the incident showed a man on the roof shouting "Allahu Akbar" as the flag was replaced. His identity was unclear.
Earlier Sunday, Rutte said he would not be blackmailed by Turkish officials. "It makes me extremely uncomfortable that a Turkish minister would hold a campaign speech here on a referendum," Rutte said in a television interview.
Erdogan has clashed repeatedly with his European counterparts this month as he seeks backing from Turkish voters across the 28-nation bloc for his referendum. The last Turkish general election in 2015 showed there were about 3 million Turkish voters abroad, though fewer than half of them voted.
Turkish ministers have tried to attend events in Europe only to have them refused entry or for the events to be canceled. When two German municipalities cited safety concerns for blocking a rally, Erdogan responded that the rulings were "not different from Nazi practices."
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(Barden reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.)
