ISTANBUL, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday that he will visit Germany to hold a rally with the Turkish community there despite cancellation of the event by local authorities.
"I am going to meet with our citizens this evening in Hamburg," Cavusoglu told top foreign diplomats in Istanbul prior to his departure for Germany, saying "No one could prevent that."
The authorities in northern German city of Hamburg on Monday canceled a scheduled meeting of the top Turkish envoy with local Turkish community, citing poor safety standard of the building.
Local authorities in Germany have also prevented other Turkish ministers from lobbying the Turkish diaspora for "yes" votes in the April 16 referendum on Turkey switching to a presidential system.
The episode has sparked a burst of outrage from Ankara and further chilled bilateral ties, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan likening it to Nazi practices and vowing to "stir up the world" until he is allowed to speak in Germany.
Some 1.4 million Turks living in Germany can vote in April on whether to grant Erdogan sweeping powers, for which the president has been pushing hard.
Another rally for Cavusoglu on the upcoming plebiscite was banned by Dutch officials last Friday.
The minister told the foreign diplomats that he received a call from the Dutch authorities stating that his visit was feared to help Dutch far-right party leader Geert Wilders to win in elections.
Wilders said on Twitter that he had applied for demonstration in front of the Turkish embassy against any referendum rally by Cavusoglu, according to press reports.
Cavusoglu accused Europe of not preventing the rise of racist parties. "And today they become the slaves of them," he said.
