Austria said Monday it had barred Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci from entering the country to attend a rally marking the anniversary of last year's failed coup attempt in Turkey. "He has been barred because his visit was not planned as part of a bilateral exchange, but was about his public appearance at an event marking the coup attempt," foreign ministry spokesman Thomas Schnoell told AFP.
Zeybekci's attendance at the "large event" would have represented a "danger for public order", Schnoell added. The rally is scheduled to take place in Vienna on Sunday. It is being organised by the Austrian branch of the Union of European Turkish Democrats (UETD), a pro-Ankara group present in several European Union countries. UETD spokesman Ramazan Aktas called Vienna's move "undemocratic".
It came three days after the Dutch government warned Turkey against sending its deputy premier, Tugrul Turkes, to address a rally in the eastern Netherlands this week to mark the abortive coup. Ties between Ankara and the EU have been strained over the crackdown that followed the July 15 2016 attempted coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
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