Labels: Armenia, Turkey

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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

Labels: Olympics, Turkey

Christian satellite television sees growth in Turkey

TURK-7 is an exciting Christian television channel broadcasting quality programming to Turkish-speaking people worldwide. TURK-7's Michael Glenn says it's a good fit because the Turkish people are hungry for media. "They are second only to the United States in the number of television channels. So they draw in this stuff, in an eager way. Half the population is under the age of 30. They're more media savvy, more in-tune to this kind of thing. Right now, we're doing four hours a day of broadcasting, and our goal is that within two and a half years, we can go 24/7

Labels: Christianity, Turk-7, Turkey

Labels: Armenia, Turkey

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

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Labels: Cem Ozdemir, Germany, Turkey

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ANALYSIS-"Fire in neighbor's house" has Turkey on edge

The conflict between Russia and Georgia threatens to undermine NATO member Turkey's ambitions to become an energy hub and could exacerbate misgivings among EU states about expanding the bloc right up to the Caucasus. The fighting over the breakaway region of South Ossetia, which has unsettled oil markets, is another reminder of the strategic importance of Turkey, a country that wants to join the European Union and sits in a volatile region bordering Iran, Syria, Iraq and former Soviet republics. With no energy resources of its own, Turkey has worked hard to become a transit route for Caspian and Central Asian oil and gas exports as Europe tries to reduce its dependence on Russia.

Along with neighbour Georgia, Turkey hosts the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which brings 1 million barrels per day of Azeri oil to Turkey's Mediterranean coast for Western export. It also hopes to host parts of the European Union-backed Nabucco pipeline, expected to be operational in 2013.

Confidence in the pipelines' security was dented last week when Kurdish terrorists claimed responsibility for an explosion that started a fire on the Turkish section of the BTC pipeline. "The East-West energy corridor and Turkey being an energy hub for the West is one of the principal arguments of Turkey in its application for the EU and the need to have a good relationship with Turkey," said Hugh Pope, senior analyst at International Crisis Group. "This conflict casts a shadow over Turkey's foreign policy platform of creating an area of stability."

Labels: Georgia, Oil, Pipeline, Russia, Turkey

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Labels: Ataturk, Secularism, Turkey

Labels: Cyprus, Turkey

Turkey’s Governing Party Avoids Ban - Sebnem Arsu

Turkey’s governing party narrowly missed being banned in a court ruling on Wednesday that released months of pressure in the country and handed a victory to the party’s leader, a former Islamist.The party, Justice and Development, or AKP, as it is know in Turkish, was kept alive by just one vote — six members of Turkey’s Constitutional Court voted to close it, but seven were required. A ban would have brought down the government, forcing national elections for the second time in a year and pitching the country into chaos. “A great uncertainty blocking Turkey’s future has been lifted,” said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of the party, speaking in Ankara, Turkey’s capital.

And while the ruling was widely viewed as a win for Mr. Erdogan, and in turn for Turkish democracy, the court did not let the party off the hook, voting to cut its public funding in half, a strong but not fatal sanction, and issued a “serious warning,” that the party was steering the country in too Islamic a direction. “AKP is on probation,” said Soli Ozel, a professor at Bilgi University in Istanbul. “The court clearly said it sees the party as a focal institution for Islamizing the country.”

Labels: APK, Democracy, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey

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Labels: Terrorism, Turkey

Labels: Terrorism, Turkey

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