Ambassador Serdar Kilic assumed Turkey's top diplomatic post in the U.S. in April 2014, after previously serving as Turkey's Ambassador to Japan, the Secretary General of Turkey?s National Security Council, Turkey's Ambassador to Lebanon and other positions handling public policy matters, including NATO and Euro-Atlantic security and defense. This is Ambassador Kilic's second posting in the U.S., having served 26 years ago in 1989 as Vice Consul in Los Angeles. Today, Ambassador Kilic leads the largest diplomatic mission of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and pursues a dynamic diplomatic agenda for the Republic of Turkey. Below, Ambassador Kilic answered our questions about U.S.-Turkish relations and current events.
Vowing that ?we will not be silenced,? television?s Dr. Oz is fighting back against critics who are trying to get him removed from a faculty position at Columbia University. Dr. Mehmet Oz will air an episode of his syndicated talk show Thursday that specifically takes on the group of 10 doctors from around the country who wrote to a Columbia dean about him. The group suggested last week that Oz promotes ?quack treatments? of weight-loss supplements with no scientific proof that they work.
The New York Times has rejected an advertisement from a Turkish-American advocacy group calling for the reconciliation between Turks and Armenians on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the 1915 incidents. The newspaper said the advertisement would be seen as a denial of "great historical events that re [sic] generally accepted as facts." The full-page open letter from the Turkish American National Steering Committee urges the U.S. government to refrain from politicizing the issue and instead promote peace and solidarity between the two nations.
