AMERICAN-TURKISH COUNCIL ELECTS A NEW CHAIRMAN

AMERICAN-TURKISH COUNCIL
ELECTS A NEW CHAIRMAN

In recognition of the vital role outstanding leadership plays in the promotion of U.S.-Turkey relations, the Board of Directors of the American-Turkish Council today announced that retiring Chairman Brent Scowcroft will be succeeded as Chairman by Ambassador Richard L. Armitage, President of Armitage International.  Ambassador Armitage will begin his service as Chairman, January 1, 2010.

With the completion of his current term on December 31, 2009, Brent Scowcroft will have served nine years as Chairman of the Board of the American-Turkish Council.

The Board of Directors and the Members of the American-Turkish Council take this opportunity to thank General Scowcroft for more than a half-century of personal commitment to a strong U.S.- Turkey relationship and particularly for his highly successful leadership of the American-Turkish Council. He will continue to be an active member of the ATC Board.

Corporate members of ATC, both American and Turkish, welcome Ambassador Armitage and look forward to working with him to strengthen the business, defense, trade and investment, foreign policy and cultural relations between the United States and Turkey, two proven allies and friends. General Scowcroft and Ambassador Armitage will travel to Turkey November 16-20 for senior-level discussions with Turkey’s government, military and business leadership. This timely visit will assure the smoothest possible transition for ATC.

BIOGRAPHY OF AMBASSADOR RICHARD L. ARMITAGE

From 1993 until March 2001, Mr. Armitage was President of Armitage Associates L.C. In 1992 and 1993, Ambassador Armitage directed U.S. assistance to the Newly Independent States (NIS) of the former Soviet Union. From 1989 until early 1992, Mr. Armitage filled key diplomatic positions as Presidential Special Negotiator for the Philippines Military Bases Agreement and Special Mediator for Water in the Middle East. President George H. W. Bush sent him as a Special Embassy to Jordan’s King Hussein during the 1991 Gulf War. In the Pentagon from June 1983 to May 1989, he served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs.

In May 1975, Mr. Armitage came to Washington as a Pentagon consultant and was posted in Tehran, Iran, until November 1976. Following two years in the private sector, he took the position of Administrative Assistant to Senator Robert Dole of Kansas in 1978. In the 1980 Reagan campaign, Mr. Armitage was senior advisor to the Interim Foreign Policy Advisory Board, which prepared the President-Elect for major international policy issues confronting the new administration. From 1981 until June 1983, Mr. Armitage was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia and Pacific Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Born in 1945, Ambassador Armitage graduated in 1967 from the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was commissioned an Ensign in the U.S. Navy. He served on a destroyer stationed on the Vietnam gun line and subsequently completed three combat tours with the Mobile Riverine Advisory Forces in Vietnam. Fluent in Vietnamese, Mr. Armitage left active duty in 1973 and joined the U.S. Defense Attaché Office, Saigon. Immediately prior to the fall of Saigon, he organized and led the removal of Vietnamese naval assets and personnel from the country.

Mr. Armitage currently serves on the Board of Directors of ConocoPhillips, ManTech International Corporation and Transcu Ltd. He is a member of The American Academy of Diplomacy as well as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He was awarded the Department of State Distinguished Service Award, is a four-time recipient of the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Award for Outstanding Public Service, the Presidential Citizens Medal, and the Department of State Distinguished Honor Award. He has received decorations from the governments of Russia, Thailand, Republic of Korea, Bahrain, and Pakistan, and he was awarded a KBE and became a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in 2005.

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