PM Balkenende and Dutch Deputy Justice Minister Nebahat Albayrak - who has joint Dutch/Turkish nationality - visited the hospital were victims were being treated late Wednesday evening. Residents who rushed to the crash site to offer help before the ambulances arrived, said that among the survivors were Dutch, Turkish and US nationals. Queen Beatrix expressed her "great empathy" with the passengers and victims' families, according to the Royal Information Service, while Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende was being kept up to date with details of the crash. Balkenende said his thoughts were with the families of the passengers. He added he spoke by phone with Turkish primes minister Tayyip Erdogan and gave him his condolences. Among the 80 injured, six were in a critical condition and may not survive, the head of the emergency team told reporters. The condition of a further 25 passengers was described as "serious", 24 passengers sustained light injuries, while the condition of 31 passengers still had to be established.

The plane was built in 2002 and its last technical inspection was in December 2008. According to the European Commission, Turkish Airlines underwent 100 ramp inspections in 2008, where "the results for safety and security have always been good." The last major air crash in the Netherlands was on October 4, 1992, when an El Al cargo Boeing 747F 4X-AXG hit several high rise buildings south Amsterdam's Bijlmer area, killing 43 people.

Labels: Amsterdam, EU, Netherlands, Turkish Airways Crash

Largest ever Dutch Trade delegation visits Turkey - The Netherlands one of Turkey's most important investors

The Largest ever Dutch trade delegation is in Turkey this week - A truly Dutch economic invasion of Turkey. The delegation includes a total of 134 company representatives ranging from Personnel Management to Environmental Companies, and every other category in between. One newspaper reported that even some buses in Turkey are carrying banners with the slogan "Holland Pioneers in International Business".

The Dutch delegation is headed by his Excellency Frank Heemskerk, the Dutch State Secretary of Economic Affairs. Turkish PM his Excellency Recep Erdogan was so impressed by the size of the delegation that he changed his agenda to be able to receive the delegation later this week in Ankara.Yesterday the Dutch delegation cruised the Bosphorus.

The Netherlands is one of the most important investors in Turkey. Last year Dutch investments in Turkey amounted to approximately euro 8.45 billion (US$11b. Turkey is also the 4th most important non-EU member trading partner of the Netherlands after Russia, Switzerland and the US.

The Turkish-Dutch who are citizens of the Netherlands of Turkish ancestry numbered 357,900 people in 2006, according to the Dutch Census Bureau. They make up 2.2% of the total population. The majority of Dutch Turks live in the four major cities of the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht). The first Turks arrived in the 1960s and 1970s as workers to fill up the labor shortage during that time in the Netherlands, as well as in other Western European countries. The majority of Dutch Turks adhere to Sunni Islam, although there is also a considerable Alevi fragment. A number of Turkish-Dutch writers have come to prominence. Halil Gür was one of the earliest, writing short stories about Turkish immigrants. Sadik Yemni is well known for his Turkish-Dutch detective stories. Sevtap Baycili is a more intellectual novelist, who's writing is not limited to migrant themes. Nebahat Albayrak (born April 10, 1968 in Şarkışla) is a Turkish-Dutch politician in the Netherlands. She is the current State Secretary of Justice in the Netherlands.

Labels: EU, Investment, Netherlands, Trade, Turkey

Dutch take Islamic Ramadan festival as their own - by Paolo Gallini

According to a new poll, the Dutch have adopted the Sugar Feast, which marks the end of the Islamic fasting month Ramadan, as one of their favorite cultural traditions.The choice of the festival followed a poll by the Dutch Center for Folk Culture. It came 14th in the list of 100 top traditions. The center (Nederlands Centrum voor Volkscultuur, NCV) asked several thousand people to name traditions that they considered important for themselves or for the Netherlands as a whole. No shortlist of options was drawn up in advance. Queen Beatrix in Hilversum unveiled the top 100 at the opening of the Year of the Traditions. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the top choice in the poll was the feast of Sinterklaas. This Dutch precursor of Santa Claus, celebrated each year on December 5, is followed on the list by the decoration of a Christmas Tree. In third place is Queen's Day on April 30.

Labels: EU, Netherlands, Ramadan

The Netherlands-a magnet for Moroccan and Turkish immigrants

For the complete report from the European Science Foundation click on this link

Between success and failure: discrepancies among second generation immigrants in the Netherlands - by Angela Michiko Hama

No less than one quarter of second-generation immigrants in the Netherlands drops out of school. This is the most alarming result of a recent survey conducted among the second generation of Turkish and Moroccan descent in the two largest Dutch cities – Amsterdam and Rotterdam. However, this is only one side to the story as the survey report also shows that other second generation immigrants are doing extremely well, with a third continuing to higher education. How can these immense discrepancies in educational performance among second generation immigrants be explained?

The high drop-out rate among the children of immigrants – who are consequently labelled as 'at risk youth' – seems to be explained by two main factors: "Of course, the low educational level as well as the disadvantaged position in society of the parents of the second generation is part of the explanation", said Liesbeth Heering, International Coordinator of the survey from the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI). "However, the inability to cater for the diversity of the pupils in Dutch schools, especially in vocational schools, is an equally big problem" continued Heering.

Labels: Education, Immigrants, Morocco, Netherlands, Turkey

Anti-Islam film fails to provoke Dutch Muslims

In the crowded shopping streets of Lombok in the fourth largest Dutch city, Muslims appeared much less motivated to take action against Wilders. Friday's shopping continued as usual. "No, we are not talking about Fitna," a man standing among a large group of Muslims standing outside a local mosque after prayers on Friday, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. "We are talking about my new car. That's really more important than some film by a Dutch legislator about the Koran."

Dutch Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists seem to have found a common denominator: EU Citizenship, Democracy, and Free Enterprise. It might not be perfect, but its better than cutting each others throat or having some fanatic blow up your family.

Labels: EU, Geert Wilders, Muslims, Netherlands

Dutch/Turkish TV presentator Senay Özdemir

For the complete report from Radio Netherlands click on this link

The right of young Turkish Muslims to have sex

Muslim parents in the Netherlands tell their daughters to stay virgin until the day of their wedding. An impossible requirement, says Senay Özdemir. It only leads to hypocrisy and disturbed family relations. Young Muslim women should have more freedom to experiment with sex before marriage.Former tv-presenter Senay Özdemir is a young Dutch woman of Turkish origin. As the editor of a digital magazine for women of immigrant background, SEN Magazine, she knows very well what is going on in the minds of young Muslimas in the Netherlands. Last week she published her view in an opinion article in the Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad. What many Muslim parents in the Netherlands are forgetting, writes Ms Özdemir, is that they themselves were mostly married at a young age and thus could legitimately have sex. In modern Dutch society, however, the age at which young Muslim women marry is steadily rising. The average age is now 23 years, but more educated women often do not marry before 30.

Ms Özdemir knows what she is talking about. As editor of SEN Magazine she daily receives e-mails in which young Muslim women speak freely about their love-life. "Young women of immigrant background increasingly consider oral sex as something quite normal and feel they can't refuse their boyfriends when they ask for anal sex, as that would not damage their virginity."She calls it the 'virginity paradox'. The prohibition of sex, argues Ms Özdemir, is totally ineffective. It has in fact the reverse effect that young Muslim women as well as men become obsessed by sex.

Labels: Muslims, Netherlands, Sex, Turkey