If Erich Maria Remarque, known for his masterpiece World War I novel “All Quiet on the Western Front,” were following developments in Turkey today, he would, perhaps, be inspired to write a piece titled “All Trouble on the Western Front.” Turkey’s age-old European vocation is jeopardized and undermined. The tension between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his faithful in Germany spilled over to the Netherlands and unprecedented developments occurred. Turkey’s relations with the European Union may have taken a fatal blow this month.

This time it was Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu's turn to be forbidden from holding a rally, in the Dutch town of Rotterdam. He was stubborn and took off anyway on March 11, but his plane did not get permission to land on Dutch soil. Erdogan was furious and hit back at Dutch officials, charging that they were “Nazi remnants and fascists”; he had accused Germany a few days earlier of "continuing with Nazi practices."

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte immediately retorted and said Erdogan’s remarks were “crazy, of course" and "out of line.”

The tension between Turkey and the Netherlands further deteriorated the afternoon of March 11. Turkish Family and Social Affairs Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya, who wears a headscarf symbolizing her religiosity or commitment to Islamism, and who was in Germany, announced she would be driving to the Turkish Consulate in Rotterdam to meet with the Turks who had wanted to hear Cavusoglu speak.