The Dutch Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday that a diplomat working in the Istanbul consulate has been pulled out of the country amid accusations that he engaged in spying activities in Turkey.
Turkish media outlets reported Sunday that an investigation had been launched into an alleged Dutch spy who security forces arrested Monday while carrying out intelligence operations in Turkey.
The Dutch ministry stated that the diplomat left Turkey on security concerns.
The diplomat in question, identified as A.Z., reportedly was working for Dutch military intelligence and has long been monitored by Ankara, the Sabah daily reported. A.Z. is reported to have entered Turkey on a diplomatic passport, allegedly tasked with forging documents and spreading false information on Turkey's support for Daesh.
According to the article, the alleged spy served in Afghanistan and participated in meetings held by opposition groups in Turkey, introducing himself as an employee of the Dutch Defense Ministry. A Haber television reported that an investigation has been launched into the suspect.
Quoting an unidentified Turkish official, Al Jazeera reported that the diplomat was exposed by Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MİT) while working to gather information about Operation Olive Branch against PKK-linked People's Protection Units (YPG) terrorists in northwestern Syria's Afrin. The official added that he was allowed to leave the country after enough evidence had been collected.
Relations between Turkey and the Netherlands soured prior to the Dutch general elections on March 14, 2017.
The Netherlands declined a landing permit to a plane carrying Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, who was scheduled to speak at a meeting in Rotterdam ahead of the Turkish constitutional reform referendum on April 16, 2017. The authorities also barred Family Minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya from entering the Turkish Consulate in Rotterdam. She was forced to remain in her vehicle for hours before being deported to Germany.
The incidents drew severe criticism from Ankara, and the Foreign Ministry asked the off-duty Dutch ambassador in Ankara, who was on leave, not to return "for a while." Nearly a year later, the Dutch Foreign Ministry on Monday said it had formally withdrawn its ambassador to Turkey.
In February, the Dutch parliament voted to recognize the 1915 events in World War I – large scale atrocities between Ottoman and Russian troops, and between their allied Kurdish and Armenian militia – as genocide.