Turkey’s minister for family affairs Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya is taking legal action against the Dutch state for expelling her from the Netherlands in the early hours of March 12.

Kaya was planning to attend a rally in support giving greater powers to president Erdogan but was ordered out of the country after a stand-off lasting several hours when she arrived at the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam.

Lawyer Ejder Köse says in Wednesday’s AD that the Dutch state failed to inform Kaya about why she should leave the country and that her expulsion was illegal.

‘It is still not clear in legal terms on what grounds the minister was forced to leave with a police escort,’ Köse said. ‘[Rotterdam] mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb ordered her expulsion but has not give a written explanation, which is against the rules.’

The Dutch government said earlier this week it believed ordering the minister to leave was ‘in line with international law’.

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.

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.