Tag: Istanbul Center in Atlanta

Alabama Istanbul Center opens new branch in Hoover

By Jon Anderson | janderson@al.com

on February 20, 2013 at 2:12 PM, updated February 20, 2013 at 5:50 PM Print

HOOVER, Alabama – The Alabama Istanbul Center plans to celebrate the opening of a new office in Hoover on Monday.

The nonprofit foundation, which seeks to promote Turkish culture and build bridges with people of other cultures, has opened an office at 2146 Centennial Drive off Lorna Road near the Landmark at Magnolia Glen apartment complex.

The foundation was established in 2006 to promote a better understanding and closer relations between Turkish and American individuals and communities, as well as other communities in Alabama, according to its website.

The main office has been in Mobile, but the center’s executive director, Umut Gunebir, moved to Hoover, and management of the organization will be at the Hoover office, said Ayse Zengul, a volunteer who is coordinating the grand opening celebration. The office in Mobile probably will close within a year, though the group still will have activities there, Zengul said.

The Alabama Istanbul Center center also works in Auburn, Huntsville, Montgomery and Tuscaloosa. The Hoover office is more centrally located for management of those activities, Zengul said.

The broader Istanbul Cultural Center has operations in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee as well.

The group’s major activities include trips to Turkey, essay contests and dinners to promote dialogue, Zengul said. The group also offers classes to teach about Turkish cooking, art and music, he said.

“There are going to be a lot of art and cultural-related activities there” at the office in Hoover, Zengul said.

The goal of the center is to contribute to world peace by proactively helping solve educational, cultural, environmental, social and humanitarian issues.

Monday’s celebration at the new branch in Hoover is scheduled from 2 to 5 p.m. and is supposed to feature Turkish cuisine, a demonstration of a traditional Turkish art technique and live music. Speakers are to include Veysel Yurdakul, governor of the Bitlis province in Turkey, Alabama Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills, and University of Alabama at Birmingham Provost Linda Lucas.

For more information, contact the Alabama Istanbul Center at 567-9524 or visit the group’s website.

This article was updated at 3:47 p.m. with additional information.

To see more news from Hoover, go to www.al.com/hoover

via Alabama Istanbul Center opens new branch in Hoover | al.com.

February 21, 2013
Istanbul Center’s New Director Arrives

Atlanta – 09.10.12

Turan Kiric

A new executive director has arrived at the Midtown Atlanta office of the Istanbul Center, a Turkish organization aimed at building understanding between people of varying faiths and cultures.

Turan Kilic said in a statement that he accepted the job “without hesitation” and hoped to continue the center’s work of facilitating opportunities for cross-cultural communication.

“Difference is not the enemy of peace; rather, it is lack of knowledge and misinformation that nourish fear and hostility,” Mr. Kilic wrote in a welcome letter in the center’s email newsletter. “Dialog, reliable exchange of information, and direct communication help build trust and respect.”

Toward that goal, the Istanbul Center each year arranges educational trips to Turkey for business, political and educational leaders from metro Atlanta and for the winners of its annual art and essay contest. In 2013, middle and high school students will write essays or create art works offering solutions to decrease humanity’s footprint on the environment.

The center is also involved in business, partnering with the Turkish American Chamber of Commerce of the Southeast (which occupies shared office space) to host visiting Turkish trade delegations.

Each year, hundreds of Atlantans have visited the Istanbul Center to partake in dinners during Ramadan, a month-long festival when Muslims fast from food and water until nightfall.

Mr. Kiric replaces Tarik Celik, the inaugural executive director of the Istanbul Center in Atlanta, who left Georgia to become executive director of the Turkish American Chamber of Commerce at Texas in Houston.

For more information about the Atlanta center, visit www.istanbulcenter.org.

via Istanbul Center’s New Director Arrives.

September 12, 2012
U.S. Scholar: U.S.-Turkish Interests Converge Despite Appearances

Phil Bolton Atlanta – 11.19.10

Dr. Joshua Walker (l) receives thanks from Tarik Celik, executive director of the Istanbul Center.

Dr. Joshua Walker (l) receives thanks from Tarik Celik, executive director of the Istanbul Center.

American and Turkish interests “will converge more than they diverge,” Joshua Walker, an authority on Turkey and the Middle East, said during a lecture Nov 15 at the Istanbul Center in Atlanta.

Dr. Walker, a former Fulbright Fellow in Ankara, Turkey, who worked at the U.S. embassy there, provided an overview of U.S.-Turkey relations including recent frictions in the relationship.

He referred specifically to the U.S. government’s concern about the “flotilla crisis” during which Turkish ships were prevented from delivering humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza.

He also cited a negative U.S. reaction to Turkey’s vote against additional sanctions on Iran to curb its nuclear program, and spoke of lingering resentment against the U.S.’s occupation of Iraq.

Dr. Walker said that American politicians have questioned whether Turkey is “re-orienting” itself toward the East and distancing itself from European values.

He downplayed these fears, saying that Turkey’s influence was being increasingly felt because it naturally was exercising greater regional influence derived from its increasing economic strength.

Turkey has the largest economy in the region with a population of some 75 million, many of whom, he said, “are young, educated and ready to work.”

While acknowledging the tension between the secularist and Muslim sectors of the population, he cited European-style reforms including guaranteeing the rights of women that the current government has passed.

Dr. Walker is a fellow at the Washington-based German Marshall Fund and the Los Angeles-based Pacific Council on International Policy. He is to join the faculty of the University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies in 2011.

His lecture was co-sponsored by the Center for International Strategy, Technology and Policy at The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia institute of Technology.

via U.S. Scholar: U.S.-Turkish Interests Converge Despite Appearances.

November 20, 2010