Erdogan calls for Turk baby boom

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on his country's citizens in Europe to step up their rates of procreation and have five children each.

He said a booming Turkish population would be the best answer to the EU's "vulgarism, antagonism and injustice".

Nearly a week after a diplomatic row between the Netherlands and Turkey, Erdogan continued his attacks on Europe in front of cheering crowds of his conservative supporters.

Speaking in the central Turkish city of Eskisehir, he urged "his brothers and sisters in Europe" to begin a baby boom in their new countries. "Have not just three but five children," he told his audience.

"The place in which you are living and working is now your homeland and new motherland. Stake a claim to it. Open more businesses, enrol your children in better schools, make your family live in better neighbourhoods, drive the best cars, live in the most beautiful houses."

The message was addressed to the 1.4million Turkish voters who live in Germany, as well as the large Turkish populations in the Netherlands, Austria, Bulgaria and Britain.

Erdogan is in the midst of a closely fought referendum campaign in which he is asking voters to grant him sweeping powers that could let him stay in office until 2029.

He appears to have decided that the diplomatic confrontation with Europe will help rally his base. He has called the Dutch government "Nazi remnants" and accused Germany of harbouring terrorists.

His rhetoric has been amplified by the Turkish media, which mostly supports the government. The Turkish tabloid Gunes published a front-page cartoon of German Chancellor Angela Merkel dressed in a Nazi uniform with the headline "Lady Hitler", while the Takvim newspaper republished a photograph of a Turkish man in Rotterdam being bitten by a Dutch police dog.

There are not yet any reliable polls ahead of the April 16 referendum, making it difficult to gauge whether Erdogan's strategy is working. But in Eskisehir his supporters said they were enraged by the Netherlands and other European countries which have stopped Turkish ministers from holding "Yes" vote rallies in their territory.

"The EU has lost us and they have lost big time," said Necmettin Yildirim, a manager in a construction company. "With their behaviour they have lost a country as developed as Turkey."

Turkish ministers said in recent weeks they were thinking of tearing up a deal with the EU to stop migrants and refugees from Syria heading to Europe.