The Week That Was: 14-20 November 2011.
The week started with the Eurasia Waste Technologies Symposium at the Haliç Coference Center on 14 November Monday and lasted for 3 days. The main topic was the management of waste in Turkey landfills across the country for storing the municipal wastes, (close to 2,000 of which 59 is controlled) which, according to one speaker has reached 27 million tons per year. This was followed by the ‘’8th Energy Symposium – Global Energy Politics and Turkey’’ between 17 – 19 November at the T.C Culture University near the airport, open to the public as well . On Nov 17, the ‘’International Symposium on Sultan Abdülmecid and His Times’’ was kicked off with a concert by Ahmet Ozhan at the Dolmabahçe Palace and lasted through Saturday. A special exhibition of newspaper front pages on Atatürk’s death was also presented at the entrance building of the Palace between 10 – 20 November, but missed by most attending the symposium. On 18 November Friday, ‘’The World Turkish Entrepreneurs Convention’ organized by the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK), commenced at the Lutfi Kırdar Conference Center, which was attended by close to 2,000 delegates from 100 countries, including the US, which also lasted through Saturday, Nov 19.
In addition, the 30th International Book Fair began its week long program on 12 November which ended today, where Egypt was the country of guest of honor. Among the many Turkish and foreign authors who signed their books was Robert Fisk, whose incredibly anti-Turkish book, ‘’The Great War for Civilization: The Conquest of the Middle East” (Oct 2005) translated into Turkish was being sold at the fair. Appearing at NTV and Kanal 24 TV programs, Robert Fisk was not bashful in stating his belief that Turks committed genocide against the Armenians in 1915, which he refers to as ‘’Holocaust’’ in his book, and suggested that Turks should recognize this, with no one rally objecting to his statements.
All of the above symposiums, conferences, convention and exhibitions had an international flavor and the role of the Turkish Diaspora was discussed, but the death of international Turkish artist Esin Afşar on 13 November was not mentioned although her efforts has done more for the correct presentation of Turkish image abroad than any organisation or individual. A program of remembrance for Esin Afşar was held at the Cemil Resit Rey Concert Hall on 15 November Tuesday, organized by the Şişli Municapilty, followed by her burial at the Karacaahmet Cemetery in Üsküdar. One of the speakers at the ceremony was Prof. Dr. Oktay Sinanoğlu, also a member of the Turkish Diaspora in America and a Turk, who told the audience, ‘’We will not forget Esin’s contributions to Turkish Culture.’’
As a consultant in the energy sector and a member of the Turkish Diaspora in the United States since 1957, with interest in the developments related to Turkey and to America, I managed to attend the above functions partially and followed the speeches, presentations and news in the media. The energy syposiums were mentioned very little in the media, although many important revelations were made during the presentations on the nuclear energy and the Nabuco gas pipeline. All four speakers at the ‘’Nuclear Energy Session’’ stated that Turkey should not start nuclear energy program when many countries, including Japan, are planning to phase out their nuclear programs. Dr. Ferruh Demirmen from the US was among the speakers who made a presentation on the Nabucco Pipeline which may never be realized now that a new Trans-Turkey pipeline from Azerbaijan to Europe has been introduced. More was written about the Abdulmecid Symposium in several newspapers than other conferences, complete with a photograph of the Speaker of the House Cemil Çiçek and the descendanst of Abdulmecit 1 and Abdulhamit 2, Osman Selahattin Osmanoğlu and Abdulhamit Kayihan Osmanoglu.
In addition to the above events, the Black Sea Business and Energy Conference, the Turkey – EU Symposium, Re-Evaliuation of Mutual Benefits organized by TUSKON and a conference by the Architect and Engineers Group, Istanbul’ ‘’The Future Threats and Opportunities for Our Cities’’ were also held in İstanbul during the week that was, I could not attend these, but read about them in the newspapers. There was also the World Energy Council Energy Conference on 16-19 November in Ankara. The purpose of this commentary is to present a summary of the most important event, ‘’The World Turkish Entrepreneurs Convention’’, and the role of the Turkish Diaspora. Summaries of the energy symposiums, the Abdülmecid Symposium, Esin Afşar Remembrance Program and the Book Fair can be made available to anyone interested or can be read in www.nationofturks.com web site later.
The World Turkish Entrepreneurs Convention, İstanbul, 18-19 Nov 2011
An article published in the November 19th 2011 issue of the Economists, ‘’The Magic of Diasporas’’ states that ‘’Immigrant Networks are a rare bright spark in the world economy. Rich countries should welcome them.’’ The full page article talks primarily about the Chinese and the Indian diasporas with reference to those of Huguenots, Scots, Lebanese, Japanese and Jews, part of 215 million first generation migrants around the world, but does not mention the Turks although their number of all generations in Europe is close to 6 million. The main argument of the article is that the Networks of kinship and language make it easier to do business accross borders, diasporas help spread ideas and Money.
The opening speeches were made by M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, the President of TOBB, Rona Yırcalı, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of DEIK, Kemal Yurtnaç, the President of Overseas Turks, and Zafer Çağlayan, the Minister of Economy. Some figures mentioned durng the speeches include:
- Turks abroad comprise the 10th largest diaspora in the world
- There are over 3,900 Turkish Association abroad
- The number of Turkish businesses in Europe is over 140,000 with close to 50 billion Euro sales
- The 3 million Turks living in Germany has opened 75,000 businesses in 50 years where over 337,000 people work
- There are over 130,000 Turkish students studying abroad
- The number of Turkish engineers working at Microsoft is 350, Boeing 75, Google 35
There was no mention on the number of Turks in America, which Akşam newspaper estimated as 250,000 (17 Nov 2011).
The regional presentations after the opening speeches included the following sessions:
1. America and Latin America
2. Eurasia
3. Asia-Pacific
4. Africa – Middle East – Gulf
5. Europe and the Balkans
During the Professional sessions monitored by Zafer Çağlayan, four speakers made excellent presentations, including a video message by Dr. Mehmet Öz of Columbia University, who spoke first and in Turkish. Dr Oz stated that his TV program is shown in 112 countries for educational purposes and suggested that funds should be made available for students to prevent brain drain. Dr. Oz’s father, Dr. Mustafa Oz, spoke after his son’s presentations and stated that during his 50 years of progfessional ife in the US, he managed to bring his children to Turkey every year to make sure they learned Turkish and experienced the Turkish culture.
The next speaker was Ali Sabancı, who was introduced as the President of the Young Entrepreneurs Association of DEIK and the creater of the PEGASUS Airline. Sabancı said that he knows all about the diaspora since he studied and worked abroad in Germany and America and suggested that the diaspora Turks should invest in Turkey rather than returning home. Sabancı also gave some figures related to Turkish experience stating that Turks were 5th in Facebook usage.
Ali Beba, the head of the School of Entrepreneurship at Hong Kong Technology Universiy, said that his wife was among the top managers at Pepsi Cola and talked about the successes of Turkish entrepreneurs abroad. Hüsnu Özyeğin spoke about his life in the United States, where he received an MBA at Harvard University while operating a small eatery and made several recommendations, including an advice that Turks abroad should send their children and grandchildren to universities in Turkey and provide funds to build quarters for girls.
The next spekaer, Hikmet Ersek, introduced himself as the CEO of Western Union, one of only 2 Turkish CEO of Fortune 500 companies (the other is Muhtar Kent, the CEO of Coca Cola Company) and stated that although he was born in Austria to a Turkish father and an Austriam mother, he considered himself a Turk and suggested that Turkish entrepreneurs abroad should be given the bluw passports.
The above sessions were followed by meetings between various groups and strategic projects.
Observations
Several speakers stated that there are over 3,900 Turkish associations around the world, but none of these were mentioned, not even the umbrella organizations such as the Federation of Turkish American Associations (FTAA), the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA which has participated with a delegation or the new federations which have many associations as members and many others in the US and Europe . As far as I could see during my limited time at the convention, among the many that included several commercial companies and Business Associations abroad, such as the ‘’Turkish-Russian Businessmen’s Association‘’, there was a stand of “Yunus Emre Institite” from Ankara which has established many Cultural Centers in several European countries.. I did not see a stand for ‘’Turkish Cultural Center’’ which has many centers accross America and orginizes many eventsa, or the Turkish Coalition of America (TCA), which is involved in many Turkish events in the US or Bridge to Turkiye Fund which provides all kinds of supports to Turkish schools from the US. There was no mention of Turkish Forum or PaxTurcica either.
There was no mention on how to fight againts the anti-Turkish propaganda, which is rampant through books, publications and TV progarams, and impacts not only the economic interests of Turks an Turkey but also the daily lives in certain areas.
All in all, the Convention was successful with several excellent presentations and publications were made available, such as ‘’Dünyada Diaspora Stratejeleri – Türk Diasporası için Öneri,ler’’ in Turkish and ‘’Küresel – Special Issue’’ both in Turkish and English. The official language of the convention was Turkish, which was also an excellent choise.
Yüksel Oktay, PE, Energy Consultant and Proprietor of Turkish-American Chronicle
İstanbul, Turkey and Washington Township, NJ, USA, 20 November 2011
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”Diasporanın Anavatan İçin Yapabilecekleri”
Dış Ekonomik İlişkiler Kurulu (DEİK), yurt dışında yaşayan 4 milyon 261 bin Türk göçmenin Türkiye ile ilişkilerini güçlendirmek ve ortak hedefler doğrultusunda hareket etmelerini sağlamak amacıyla bir yol haritası oluşturdu.
”Diaspora Stratejileri: Türk Diasporası İçin Öneriler” başlıklı çalışma, 18-19 Kasım tarihlerinde İstanbul’da yapılacak olan Dünya Türk Girişimciler Kurultayı’nda Başbakan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’a sunulacak.
DEİK’in çalışmasında, ”Türkiye’nin diaspora için yapabilecekleri” ve ”Diasporanın anavatan için yapabilecekleri” iki ayrı başlıkta incelendi.
Diasporanın Türkiye’nin kalkınmasına katkı sağlayabileceği projeler arasında, Türkiye’deki sektör ve şirketlerin kalkınmasına yönelik, lider diaspora üyelerinin kilit rol oynayacağı Girişim Sermayesi Ortaklıkları’nın kurulması ve yürütülmesi önerisi yer alıyor.
Diaspora üyelerinin çalıştıkları ülkenin imkanlarını kullanarak uzman oldukları alanda belli bir süre Türkiye için çalışması da öneriler arasında bulunuyor.