Turkish FM warns of ‘religion wars’ in Europe in remarks on Dutch elections

ANTALYA

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Europe will soon be the site of “religion wars,” Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on March 16, in Ankara’s first comment on the general elections in the Netherlands that saw the victory of Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Liberal VVD. 

“Now the election is over in the Netherlands ... “When you look at the many parties you see there is no difference between the social democrats and fascist [Geert] Wilders. All have the same mentality. Where will you go? Where are you taking Europe? You have begun to collapse Europe. You are dragging Europe into the abyss. Holy wars will soon begin in Europe,” Çavuşoğlu said on March 16, in Ankara’s first comment on the general election in the Netherlands that saw the victory of Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s Liberal VVD. 

“They killed each other 100 years ago because they were of different faiths,” he added, without elaborating.

“But they learned a lesson from this and then set up the European Union and the Council of Europe,” he added.