The Dutch government is convinced it acted ‘in line with international law’ when it refused to allow a Turkish minister to address a rally in Rotterdam and ordered her to leave the country.

Prime minister Mark Rutte, foreign minister Bert Koenders and social affairs minister Lodewijk Asscher said in a joint letter to parliament on Monday that the actions of the Turkish government representatives made it impossible to find another solution to the problem.

Last month, Turkey tried to send two ministers to the Netherlands to campaign in favour of a referendum giving greater powers to the presidency, even though the Netherlands said it did not welcome the visit.

The letter, which details the events leading up to the Rotterdam stand-off, does admit that two people in the minister’s entourage should not have been arrested because they had diplomatic status.

Diplomatic immunity only applies to heads of state and foreign affairs ministers as well as accredited diplomats and government representatives on official business. Turkish minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya herself did not meet these conditions, the briefing said.

Diplomatic row

The refusal to allow minister Kaya to remain in the country and the decision earlier in the day to withdraw landing rights for foreign minister Mevlüt Çavusoglu have led to a major diplomatic row between the Netherlands and Turkey.

The bilateral relationship between the two countries has worsened, the briefing said.

‘Since March 11 the Turkish president and various ministers have made very extreme public statements about the Netherlands,’ the briefing said. ‘The cabinet considers it to be extremely inappropriate for the Turkish authorities to make such comments about a friendly Nato state.’

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has described the Netherlands as ‘fascist’ and ‘the remnants of Nazism’.

However, the cabinet’s focus remains de-escalating the row. ‘The cabinet is convinced that given their 400 year friendship, the Netherlands and Turkey will be able to achieve this,’ the ministers say.