Phil Bolton – Publisher
Atlanta – 09.22.08
Kennesaw State University’s “Year of Turkey” is to officially open on the week of Oct. 6 with the arrival in Atlanta of Kursad Tuzmen, the Turkish minister of state in charge of foreign trade and customs.
Mr. Tuzmen will be arriving with a delegation of Turkish businessmen and politicians who will attend a variety of programs including a dinner at the Istanbul Center in Midtown and a breakfast at the Southern Center for International Studies in Buckhead.
Tarik Celik, executive director of the Istanbul Center, told GlobalAtlanta that Turkish business and government leaders were focusing on Atlanta and the Southeast U.S. as a prime region with which to develop relations.
Georgia is one of six states the Turkish government is targeting for increased investment.
“This is the longest program they have ever had in the U.S.,” he said. The Istanbul Center was established in 2002 to improve relations between Turkey and the Southeast.
The Istanbul Center, the Turkish American Chamber of Commerce and Kennesaw State have developed 60 programs to take place over the course of this academic year.
Daniel S. Papp, president of Kennesaw State, traveled to Turkey with Mr. Celik to meet with academic, cultural, government and political leaders to set the agenda.
Among the officials with whom they met were Hayati Yazici, Turkey’s deputy prime minister, and Kadir Topbas, the mayor of Istanbul.
A series of meetings will be held with the visiting Turkish officials and business leaders with the possibility of one-on-one meetings.
The programs scheduled at Kennesaw State over the course of the year are to include wide ranging cultural, economic and political presentations.
But, according to Dr. Papp, a highlight of the year is to be a conference that is to be held with the support of the United Nations at the end of January.
The Alliance of Civilization conference is to explore current conditions in Turkey as an example of how cultural and historical conflicts don’t have to degenerate into violence.
Kofi Annan, the former U.N secretary-general, established the Alliance of Civilization initiative to provide practical recommendations for addressing the roots of polarization between societies and cultures.
The U.N. program was launched in 2005 at the recommendation of the governments of Spain and Turkey.
Mr. Tuzmen is a member of the Turkish parliament and has been serving as minister of state since 2002. Among the former positions he held are undersecretary and deputy undersecretary of foreign trade and general director of free zones.
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