Joost Lagendijk
Joost Lagendijk ( born June 8, 1957 in Roosendaal ) is a Dutch politician of the party Groen Links. He lives in Turkey since 2009.
Life
After leaving school, Lagendijk studied history at the University of Utrecht and graduated in 1985. Besides his studies Lagendijk was in bookstores the publisher Van Gennep active as sellers. Lagendijk became politically active and was a member of the Pacifistisch Socialist Party (PSP) and he succeeded in the catchment as a delegate to the Second Chamber of the States General. Lagendijk was elected Vice Chairman of the PSP and from 1987 to 1991, the international secretary of the PSP. Politically, he accompanied the merger of the PSP to the emergence of the party Groen Links, the international secretary he was then from 1991 to 1994. Lagerdijk founded in 1987 with the other magazine De Helling, for which he wrote until 1994 article. Since 1994 he has worked as a writer for Babylon - De Geus.
In 1998 he became the deputy of Groen Links of entry into the European Parliament, where he served until 2009. From 2002 he was vice - president of Turkey Delegation of the European Parliament.
Lagendijk is married to Turkish journalist Nevin Sungur since 28 October 2006. The wedding took place in Istanbul at Hotel Pera Palas under high media observation. While Langendijk in the Netherlands in public is rather unknown and can live in anonymity and in Brussels, he is regarded in Turkey as a folk hero with rock star status, "Mr. Europe ", " son " or " brother of all Turks" and "Friend of Turkey ". Since July 2009 he has worked as a consultant at the Istanbul Policy Center of Sabancı University in Istanbul and is a member of the advisory board of the think tank European Policy Centre and the advisory board of European transatlantic the Heinrich Böll Foundation. He writes in October 2010 as a columnist in the newspaper Today's Zaman and Zaman.
Political positions
In the eighties and nineties Lagendijk had contacts with Kurdish and Turkish refugees in the Netherlands, was an avowed enemy Turkey and called for a boycott of the country vacation. His views changed when he became a member of the Turkish delegation to the EP in 2002. Lagendijk since 2001, three books with his EP colleague Jan Marinus Wiersma published on the expansion and foreign policy of the European Union.
Lagendijk 2006 criticized the position of the Turkish military in Turkey. As the Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, he was sued by then Turkish ultra-nationalist for insulting Turkishness ( Article 301 TCK). The case against the MEP was adjusted.
Works
- Well komt Mars Venus: een antwoord op Europees Bush ( jointly with Jan Marinus Wiersma ) Balans - Amsterdam 2004, ISBN 90-5018-715-3
- Sturen bij de Moslimburen: Europe Hoe kan de democratie before their ( jointly with Jan Marinus Wiersma ) Bakker - Amsterdam 2007, ISBN 978-90-351-3197-2
- Travels among Europe's Muslim Neighbours: The Quest for Democracy (PDF, 635 KB) (English translation of " stubborn ones bij de Moslimburen " ) Centre for European Policy Studies ( CEPS), Brussels, March 2008, ISBN 978-92-9079-778-4.