Turkey and Netherlands to restore diplomatic ties: Foreign Ministry

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Turkey and the Netherlands have agreed to normalize relations between the two countries, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

The decision was reached in a phone conversation between the Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, and his Dutch counterpart, Stef Blok, according to the ministry’s statement.

The Dutch Foreign Ministry also confirmed in a statement on Friday that both countries have decided to restore diplomatic ties.

“During their phone conversation, the [foreign] ministers agreed to normalize diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and Turkey,” the Dutch ministry confirmed in a statement.

The ministry also added that they have “agreed to reinstate ambassadors in Ankara and The Hague shortly.”

A diplomatic row between the NATO allies has been ongoing since March 2017, when the Netherlands prevented members of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government from campaigning among the Turkish diaspora in the Netherlands as the same time as the Netherlands was also holding its own national elections.

Diplomatic ties had been conducted only through their chargé d’affaires since February.

Editing by Nadia Riva