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Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas Visits New York

Brooklyn Borough Mayor Marty Markowitz welcomed the mayor of Istanbul to Brooklyn, with a ceremony featuring a marching band and huge platters of Junior's cheesecake, a ceremony he says was paid for entirely by the Turkish consulate.

"Brooklyn -- proud home to America's largest Turkish-American population by county -- was extremely thrilled to welcome Mayor Kadir Topbas, the leader of Istanbul," Markowitz said.

February 9, 2011
Published in Politicians

TCA Donates $100,000 to Help Haiti Earthquake Victims

On February 7, the Turkish Coalition of America (TCA) presented a $ 50,000 donation to Operation Helping Hands to help victims of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. TCA had previously donated $50,000 to Operation Helping Hands and to Cross International, another relief organization, bringing the total TCA donation for the Haiti relief efforts to $100,000.

The donation ceremony was held at the Florida Turkish American Association (FTAA) Turkish House with the participation of Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in whose district Operation Helping Hands is headquartered, Joe Pena of The United Way and Serap Odabas-Yigit, President of FTAA. Congresswoman Lehtinen praised TCA and Operation Helping Hands for their efforts to provide vital assistance to the people of Haiti. The event received coverage in the Miami Herald and the Bradenton Herald and on local television networks.

February 8, 2011
Published in Politicians

Turkish-US Strategic Partnership

By Namik Tan *- During the long decades of the Cold War, Turkey was primarily known for its military-strategic contribution to NATO in the defense of freedom. Now, we are increasingly known for our regional ties, economic dynamism and secular democracy and Turkish diplomacy has become an active force in projecting peace and stability in a wider geography spanning the Balkans, the Middle East, the Caucasus and Asia.

However, conflicts and disputes in our immediate and further neighborhood and beyond are far from resolved. Indeed, the Iranian nuclear issue remains elusive; Iraq is yet to be secured from sources of instability; efforts to ameliorate the Arab-Israeli conflict have not produced the desired outcome; Turkish-Israeli relations are passing through difficult times; the Caucasus continues to witness ongoing conflicts; efforts to ensure stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina face challenges; despite positive developments, international efforts in Afghanistan still confront difficulties; and in Cyprus the ongoing isolation of the Turkish Cypriots continues despite attempts to achieve a lasting settlement. Turkey plays an important and frequently central role on each of these issues, all of which remain high on the United States’ foreign policy agenda.

January 20, 2011
Published in Politicians

US Consul General Kilner: "Bilateral Trade Should be Bigger"

The first and the 16th largest economies in the world should have better trade relations, said US Consul General Scott Kilner, who assumed his duties in İstanbul in September 2010. “Bilateral trade is roughly $11 billion in both directions. It should be a lot bigger than that for the first largest and the 16th largest economies in the world. Turkish trade with a number of European countries, and now with Iraq is bigger than with the US,” Kilner told Sunday’s Zaman. Kilner referred to US President Barack Obama, Turkish President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s commitment for setting up the framework for an increase in trade relations.

The trade volume between the two countries reached almost $13 billion in 2010, the flow is in the US’s favor as Turkey’s imports from the US are more than double the volume of its exports to the country. In 2009, US exports to Turkey were $7.09 billion while imports from Turkey were $3.66 billion, bringing total bilateral trade to $10.75 billion.