Special Issues - turkofamerica.com

Obama Foundation Summit: Prince Harry, Chobani Founder Among Attendees

Former President Barack Obama’s foundation is hosting a two-day summit in Chicago starting Tuesday, aimed at fostering a “hands-on exchange on ideas” to address top global concerns. The summit will feature discussions on topics including communicating across differences, art and culture’s role in creating productive cities, understanding race in relation to one’s civic identity, motivating young people to choose a civic path and technology’s role in creating equitable and inclusive communities, according to the website.

October 31, 2017
Published in Politics1
Written by Admin TOA

Tagged under

Comodo Sells SSL Business to Silicon Valley VC Firm for Undisclosed Amount

Private equity firm Francisco Partners announced on Oct. 31 that it has acquired the SSL/TLS Certificate Authority (CA) business from security firm Comodo Group. Financial terms of the deal are not being publicly disclosed. "This is a carve-out of the Comodo SSL business, which is now going to be a separate legal and operational entity," Bill Holtz, CEO of Comodo CA told eWEEK. Holtz is joined on the management team of the new Comodo CA business with Chairman of the Board Bill Conner, who is also the current CEO of network security vendor SonicWall. Comodo Group founder Melih Abdulhayoglu, will retain a minority stake in the Comodo CA business, as well as taking an observers role on the Comodo CA board of directors.

October 31, 2017
Published in Businessman
Written by Admin TOA

Revamped Jets Set for Turkish Airlines L.America Routes

Turkey's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) is sending revamped planes to its flights to Colombia and Panama to give passengers traveling to Latin America and back extra comfort. Cemal Kaya, Turkish Airlines’ manager in Colombia, Panama and Venezuela, told Anadolu Agency on Monday that the planes serving the Colombia and Panama line have been renovated for a more comfortable flight. Explaining that despite its marathon 13-hour length, the Istanbul-Bogota-Panama line has many passengers, Kaya said that with the renovated planes THY started to give better service to its customers and has gotten lots of positive feedback.

October 31, 2017
Published in Businessman
Written by Admin TOA

Tagged under

Youth Leadership Congress delegates visit the U.S. Capitol

4th Annual TCA Turkish American Youth Leadership Congress Concludes

The Turkish Coalition of America’s Fourth Annual Turkish American Youth Leadership Congress took place in Washington, DC from October 26-29, 2017. Twenty three young Turkish American college students, graduate students, and young professionals enjoyed a weekend of networking and meetings with experts and government officials, and they came away inspired to become involved in politics and take a more active role in the Turkish American community.

October 31, 2017
Published in Politics1
Written by Admin TOA

Tagged under

President Trump, Heed the Plight of the Rohingya

By Murat Güzel - * Malatya, the town where I was born, hosts one of the 25 refugee camps across the plains of southeastern Turkey. With our NATO allies, the United States has helped provide 2,083 shipping containers in Malatya alone that serve as homes for 7,625 refugees. In the dusty summer heat and in the windy, rainy winter, they serve as shelter for men, women, and children who have escaped the Syrian conflict. A small commitment of our tax dollars early in a refugee crisis is an investment in the future. According to NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Center, the Turkish government and private sector have diligently clothed, fed, and housed over 3.1 million people fleeing conflict. This makes Turkey the host country with the largest refugee population in the world.

October 30, 2017
Published in Politics1
Written by Admin TOA

Tagged under

US Visa Row Hinders Trade, Says Turkish Minister

Customs and Trade Minister Bulent Tufenkci said Tuesday he hoped the visa row between Turkey and the U.S. gets resolved soon since it hinders trade. The Turkey-U.S. visa row was sparked on Oct. 8, when the U.S. Embassy in Ankara announced the suspension of non-immigrant visa services to Turkish nationals, following the arrest of a local employee at the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul, prompting a tit-for-tat response from Ankara. Speaking at a meeting with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce committee in capital Ankara, Tufenkci said: "I hope the visa suspension will be removed shortly and negotiations will be concluded positively, and contribute to increasing trade volume between the two countries."

October 26, 2017
Published in Businessman
Written by Admin TOA

Tagged under

Maryland Secretary of State John C. Wobensmith with TASC Co-Chair Gunay Evinch and TCA Project Coordinator Sezan McDaniel

Continued Turkish American Outreach to Elected Officials

Responding to TCA's call for outreach to elected officials, four Turkish Americans joined members of Congress and industry representatives in Chicago, IL at the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) PAC Chicago Retreat on October 20-21, 2017. Eleven Congressional Black Caucus members attended, including Assistant Democratic Leader Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC/6th), Ranking Member of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY/5th), Foreign Affairs Committee Member Rep. Robin Kelly (D-IL/2nd), Turkey Caucus members Reps. GK Butterfield (D-NC/1st), Danny Davis (D-IL/7th), Hank Johnson (D-GA/4th), Brenda Lawrence (D-MI/14th), Stacey Plaskett (D-VA/AL), Bobby Rush (D-IL/1st), and Reps. Joyce Beatty (D-OH/3rd) and Gwen Moore (D-WI/4th). The four Turkish American participants were Cem Karsan, Elhan Orhon, Dr. Hande Ozdinler, and Hakan Akgun, all of Chicago, IL.

October 26, 2017
Published in Politicians
Written by Admin TOA

Tagged under

From left: Richard Baker, Adam Neumann and Lord & Taylor Fifth Avenue

WeWork buys Lord & Taylor flagship for $850M for new world headquarters

Facing mounting pressure to shed its real estate assets, Hudson’s Bay Company is selling Lord & Taylor’s flagship store to WeWork and its partner for $850 million. WeWork Property Advisors — a joint venture with Rhône Capital, who is making a $500 million equity investment in HBC as part of the deal — is purchasing the 676,000-square-foot landmark building for WeWork’s new global headquarters, the New York Times reported. The Real Deal first reported that WeWork and Rhone were raising several hundred million dollars for a real estate investment fund.

October 26, 2017
Published in How to Invest in the U.S.
Written by Admin TOA

Tagged under

Rendering of Hudson Yards and Greystone’s Allison Berman

Nearly $17B in EB-5 Funds Are Ready for Redeployment

A 10-year backlog in EB-5 applications has a silver lining: $16.6 billion that investors can reinvest in real estate or other businesses if they still want a green card. The origin of the money is a unique problem with the EB-5 program, in which investors can invest $500,000 in a U.S. business in exchange for a green card. But the program requires investors’ money to be “at risk” pending the outcome of the application. Since the U.S. only hands out 10,000 EB-5 visas a year, a years-long backlog means some developers want to return investors’ money before they obtain the green card.

October 26, 2017
Published in How to Invest in the U.S.
Written by Admin TOA

Tagged under

US Support to PKK’s Syrian Wing Will Leave Scars on Turks Forever

By BARÇIN YİNANÇ - An urban legend throughout the 1990s was that “American helicopters have dropped arms to the PKK,” the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party. I have never received confirmation of this legend from Turkish Foreign Ministry officials. I have even questioned retired top Foreign Ministry diplomats, believing that they could speak more freely. But even they were unable to confirm it, either on or off the record. Maybe they simply could not access evidence gathered by the intelligence sources, which would be a rather unusual state of affairs.

October 26, 2017
Published in Politics1
Written by Admin TOA

Tagged under

More...

“Ayla: The Daughter of War”: opening night screening of Turkish film, that country’s foreign-language Oscar submission, followed by a reception.

Asian World Film Festival Opens with Turkish Movie, “Ayla: The Daughter of War”

By Diane Garrett - Variety - Georges Chamchoum has a simple mission: He wants to share the rich and varied offerings from Asian filmmakers with Hollywood players and beyond. A cultural counter force to Washington isolationism, he has lined up a wide array of screenings, panels and tributes for the third annual Asian World Film Festival. The eight-day event kicks off Oct. 25 in Culver City and concludes Nov. 2, sponsored in part by Variety. This year’s installment is the broadest yet in scope. Movies range from “Dearest Sister,” the first film from Laos submitted for a foreign-language Oscar, and “Little Gandhi,” Syria’s first entry in that category, to pioneering Hollywood drama “Joy Luck Club,” part of a beefed-up Asian-American focus.

October 26, 2017
Published in Movie & Theather
Written by Admin TOA

Tagged under

Airmen spread out around the flightline to begin a foreign-object-debris walk to remove trash and other objects from the area May 29, 2012, at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey. The FOD walk was a combined effort between the 39th Air Base Wing and Turkish air force 10th Tanker Base Command to clear the area of debris that could potentially damage aircraft engines.

Ex-envoy Says U.S. Should Prepare to Lose Turkish Base

Relations between Ankara and Washington have grown so fraught during recent months that the Pentagon should prepare alternatives to a key Turkish air base for regional operations, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey said Tuesday. U.S. forces have operated out of Incirlik Air Base since the 1950s, but growing distrust between the NATO allies — from U.S. backing of Kurdish militias in Iraq to its refusal to extradite U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen — has put that military relationship at risk, according to former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Eric Edelman.

October 26, 2017
Published in Politics1
Written by Admin TOA

Tagged under

Suns' Assistant Coach Mehmet Okur Got Fired and Left A Legendary Instagram Post

The Phoenix Suns had a brutal Sunday afternoon that included the firing of their head coach, Earl Watson, and a subtweet from their veteran Eric Bledsoe about wanting to get the heck out of there. Then Bledsoe was openly recruited by conference rival DeAndre Jordan on Twitter. It was all somehow uglier than the two 40-plus-point losses the team suffered in its opening week. Now-former assistant coach Mehmut Okur added onto the pile.

October 26, 2017
Published in Sports
Written by Admin TOA

Tagged under

Yelp Review Gets Turkish Bartender at Disney Springs Fired, Lawsuit Says

A Turkish bartender at Disney Springs has filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against STK restaurant, saying he was fired after a Yelp review accused him of making anti-American comments. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Orlando said Serkan Sorkon was fired from STK Orlando in January after a negative posting about the bartender left on internet review site Yelp. The Yelp review, which is still online, said a Turkish bartender made disparaging comments about the United States, which Sorkon denies. “The Bartender, I don’t remember his name but he was from Turkey,” said the review from user “Joseph K. of Lakeland, FL.”

October 26, 2017
Published in Professionals
Written by Admin TOA

Tagged under

More...

Videos