Netherlands party challenges Turkey's NATO membership: report

The Jerusalem Post

This file photo shows right-wing politician Geert Wilders. AP photo

The Netherlands' third largest political party urged the country's Foreign Affairs and Defense ministries last week to reconsider Turkey's NATO membership, the Jerusalem Post reported.
 
Head of the Dutch Party for Freedom, Geert Wilders, and the party's Middle East expert, MP Wim Kortenoeven, accused Turkey of abandoning its allies Israel and France, the report said. 
 
The Turkish government had implemented sanctions on France immediately after the French Parliament voted Dec. 22 in favor of a bill penalizing the denial of the events in 1915 as genocide.
 
France and Holland were regarded as being among the leading countries in the NATO military alliance by the Jerusalem Post. 
 
Kortenoeven reportedly told the Jerusalem Post that "Turkey had a short but disturbing history of abandoning its allies" and "it could be a lethal mistake to entrust them with the custody of a crucial element of new Western/European defence system against nuclear rogue states such as Iran and Pakistan."
 
The party's military spokesperson also posed questions to the ministries regarding Turkey's reliability as a NATO partner, the article said.
 
The article mentioned a statement by Radio Netherlands Worldwide in which it said that it was unlikely for Netherlands or Germany to follow the French example and pass resolutions against Turkey.
 
“Both countries have large Turkish communities. No one will be keen to offend them with a ban. But it would be good to put a bit more pressure on Turkey. It’s always good to take an honest look at your history,” Lariss van den Heri, professor of international law at Leiden University was quoted as saying.