In the midst of Tuesday's Kurd-induced mayhem, it was reported that Mr Abdullah Ocalan believed he was being brought from the Greek Embassy in Nairobi to the Netherlands - until he fell into the hands of the Turkish authorities.
In January, the Netherlands was one of the countries where Ocalan the rebel leader hoped to take refuge after he left Italy. However, he was not sighted in the Netherlands and two Belgium fighter jets were reported to have escorted a small light aircraft which was on its way there out of Belgium airspace. It has never fully been confirmed whether Mr Ocalan was on board.
The Kurdish involvement in the Netherlands dates back to the 1960s when workers from rural areas of Turkey were invited to fill job vacancies in the expanding post-war Dutch economy. In subsequent years many of the "guest workers", of both Turkish and Kurdish origin, settled in the Netherlands and applied to have family members join them.
Following President Saddam Hussein's crushing of the Kurdish revolt in Iraq in the aftermath of the 1990 Gulf War, a large number of Iraq-based Kurds made their way to the Netherlands as political refugees.
Currently the Kurdish population in the Netherlands stands at about 46,000. Ironically, given the present situation, many Kurdish families originally from southern Turkey, are classed as Turkish in official Dutch statistics.
Dutch immigration policies, though tightened up in recent years, are regarded as among the most liberal in Europe and Holland remains an important destination for Kurds seeking political asylum or work.
However, in January 1998, senior Dutch police officials met in Italy with their counterparts from Germany, France, Belgium, Greece, Turkey and Italy to discuss measures to stem the flow of Kurdish refugees to Italy. Many refugees, it was claimed, were transported to Italy by criminal gangs, operating from Istanbul, before travelling on to family members living in the other EU member-states.
On April 12th, 1995, an inaugural meeting of the Parliament of Kurdistan in Exile was held in the Dutch administrative capital. At the time the PKK's representatives stated: "The performance of the act proved to the world that the Dutch people and their government are democratic and fair relative to freedom of expression. This opportunity was also an act of tolerance. The Kurdish people will never forget such an act of understanding. It is obvious that the occasion will be remembered as an historic beginning in times to come."
In protest at the Dutch action in allowing the meeting to take place in the Hague, Turkey withdrew its ambassador from the Netherlands for a period.