Turkish foreign minister says his visit to Germany cannot be prevented

ISTANBUL: Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said nobody would be able to prevent his visit to Germany later on Tuesday and that Turkey would give the necessary response if faced with hostility on the matter.



Cavusoglu made the comments at a meeting in Istanbul with foreign diplomats ahead of a visit to Hamburg where he is due to attend a rally with Turkish voters despite local authorities' closure of the venue where he had been due to speak.

A row between NATO allies Turkey and Germany escalated over the past week after German authorities withdrew permission for three other rallies in support of President Tayyip Erdogan's plans to overhaul Turkey's constitution and win greater powers. Cavusoglu called the cancellations "biased and shameful".



Cavusoglu also warned that Europe would return to a pre-World War II era if it did not prevent the rise of "racist parties", and said the continent had become captive to populist politicians such as Dutch nationalist Geert Wilders.