Tag: embassy

Turkey’s Berlin embassy moves back into its WWII home

Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled for a 2-day visit in Germany, where he will also meet Angela Merkel to discuss the civil war in Syria.

By DPA | Oct.30, 2012 | 10:51 AM | 1

The new Turkish embassy in Berlin – AP – October 29, 2012.

Exterior view of the new Turkish embassy in Berlin, Germany, October 29, 2012. Photo by AP

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was to inaugurate a new Turkish embassy in Berlin on Tuesday, with the grandiose building underlining his nation’s ambition to become a member of the European Union.

The mission, Turkey’s largest abroad, has been erected in the German capital’s upscale Tiergarten embassy district, on the site where a Turkish embassy stood until Allied bombardment late in World War II left much of the city in rubble.

The 30-million-euro (39-million-dollar) building, entered through a 16-metre-high copper-lined archway, is located between the missions of South Africa and Italy.

Erdogan was to wrap up his visit to Berlin on Wednesday, when he meets Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss the conflict in Syria. More than 100,000 Syrians have sought refuge in Turkey.

Some 2.5 million people living in Germany have ethnic Turkish roots. The two nations have close trade ties.

The embassy building is divided into two parts: the so-called “palace,” which contains reception areas and the ambassador’s office; and the “city,” which contains office space for 100 staff.

Between them is an atrium named after the Bosporus, the waterway separating the European and Asian parts of Turkey.

Thomas Hillig, one of the three architects, said the modern lines and grandeur of the building were an expression of Turkey’s desire to join the European Union, adding, “Turkey wants to show itself as a modern, open nation.”

Turkish ornamentation on the building includes the national logo and more subtle features such as a traditional Islamic pattern known as girih interlacing, which is engraved on the window glass.

“It’s meant to look Turkish and not be just a faceless block,” Hillig said.

Tiergarten was picked as the city’s embassy neighborhood under the Nazis, when the architect Albert Speer was commissioned to remake the city and the Axis allies Italy and Japan built their embassies there.

via Turkey’s Berlin embassy moves back into its WWII home – Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper.

October 31, 2012
Cellist Efe Baltacigil, pianist Amy Yang perform as part of Embassy Series

By Cecelia Porter, Published: December 19

(Balazs Borocz) – Amy Yang

Istanbul-born cellist Efe Baltacigil and pianist Amy Yang played at the Turkish ambassador’s residence Friday. The concert, co-sponsored by the Embassy Series, highlighted two iconic sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven: Op. 5, No. 1, in F and Op. 102, No. 2, in D. The musicians’ informed yet personal approach to this music beautifully underlined the composer’s groundbreaking liberation of the cello from its traditional supportive role — as in the Op. 5 — to its emerging reciprocal partnership with the piano — as in the Op. 102.

Baltacigil, the newly appointed principal cellist of the Seattle Symphony, combines an intense, gorgeous tone with a broad palette of timbres. In Op. 5, these qualities were carefully subdued to a quiet intimacy in accordance with the piano’s prominence. (Beethoven was a celebrated pianist himself.) Yang underscore dher command of the keyboard in music demanding the titanic power of the composer’s “Hammerklavier” sonata while exhibiting Op. 5’s full range of technical pizzazz and fluid scale passages. This was all the more remarkable because the pianist had to deal with a small, out-of-tune Steinway that lacked resonance. Particularly in the Op. 5 finale, the cellist met Beethoven’s playful presto temperament with a boldly impulsive bow matched by Yang’s incisive phrasing.

In Op. 102, the cello comes into its own against the piano. This was especially evident in the adagio, where Baltacigil missed no chance for sonorous passion to match Yang’s depth of expression.

Programmed between the Beethoven pieces, Maurice Ravel’s “Habanera” resonated with a tangy Iberian rhythmic pulse, and Antonin Dvorak’s “Silent Woods” was nicely done, with both players maintaining a marvelous legato from start to finish.

Porter is a freelance writer.

via Cellist Efe Baltacigil, pianist Amy Yang perform as part of Embassy Series – The Washington Post.

December 22, 2011
Kenya to open embassies in Angola and Turkey

By David Ochami

Kenya intends to downgrade its diplomatic missions in Ireland and Namibia and open new ones in Angola and Turkey, acting Foreign Affairs minister George Saitoti said on Tuesday.

New missions are also planned in Muscat – Oman, and Doha – Qatar, the minister told the Parliamentary Defence and Foreign Relations Committee.

As he lamented the Sh7.2 billion allocated his ministry by the Finance Minister for the new financial year, committee members questioned the reasons behind the Sh870 million allocated to refurbish or build new missions in Nigeria, South Africa, Namibia and Pakistan.

They asked for the rationale behind the opening of the Dublin mission and why the ministry does not seem interested in upgrading its diplomatic presence in Juba, Southern Sudan.

The budget

Saitoti complained that he had asked for Sh19.5 billion for development and recurrent purposes for the 2011/2012 financial year but was allocated an amount that excludes Kenya’s bilateral assistance to Southern Sudan, Somalia and troubled states in the African Great Lakes among what acting PS Patrick Wamoto described as “soft power instruments” to influence the region.

“Why did we open a mission in Ireland and not Turkey?” Yatta MP Charles Kilonzo asked. Saitoti could also not explain why there is no mission in Uganda.

Committee chairman Adan Keynan said Kenya has not responded to a Turkish pledge for financial assistance to open a mission in Istanbul despite 19 diplomatic, bilateral and trade exchanges between the two countries.

Keynan said Parliament cannot rubberstamp (refurbishment) projects that do not make economic sense.

The minister said Kenya would deploy more resources in building a new mission in Luanda because Angola “has substantial oil reserves” and added that the ministry would divert resources from the missions in Dublin and Windhoek to strengthen its diplomatic presence in Istanbul and Luanda.

Although Kenya has missions in Windhoek and Dublin, Namibia and Ireland pulled out their high commissions in Nairobi to Dar es Salaam.

Wamoto disclosed that the ministry “will down grade (the Dublin mission) and transfer the money to Turkey” then “down grade the mission in Namibia and transfer some resources to Angola”.

Wamoto said the Dublin mission was opened with an expected economic dividend that has evaporated with the economic decline in that country.

Saitoti said he would seek Cabinet approval to “open an embassy in Turkey immediately” but admitted he had no clear knowledge of why Kenya has rented and never purchased properties in Kampala since 1963.

The ministry’s assets manager Dr Margaret Gachuru said the ministry has faced legal and practical challenges in buying properties in Kampala, Uganda.

via The Standard | Online Edition :: Kenya to open embassies in Angola and Turkey.

June 22, 2011