A writer and former MEP for the Dutch left-wing green party GroenLinks has been banned from entering Turkey, despite living there for years.
Joost Lagendijk said on Twitter he had been stopped at Sabiha Gökcen airport on his return from the Netherlands and sent back. I’ need to apply for a special visa at Turkish embassy in the Netherlands. Hope it is only a bureaucratic obstacle and not a decision to block me forever,’ he said.
Lagendijk married a Turkish journalist in 2006 and has his home in Istanbul. He has written extensively about Turkey and was a teacher at a university in Istanbul until it was closed for its alleged connections to the Gülen movement, the AD said on Friday.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames Gülen for the summer’s failed military coup. Thousands of teachers have lost their jobs or been arrested for alleged links with the Muslim cleric.
Lagendijk also wrote columns for newspapers Zaman and Today’s Zaman which have since been taken over by the Turkish government.
