LARGE IMAGE ATAA President's Experience in Europe About the U.S. State Department Beginning with their original invitation, and through my conversations and interaction with various State Department officials such as Steven Lauterbach, The Program Officer, before and during the trip I could not help but admire the extreme efficiency and courtesy with which the U.S. State Department functioned. I am not certain how exactly the foreign departments of other countries function in comparison, but adding to our past ATAA encounters with the American State Department and the American Embassies abroad, this experience after a trip to Europe secured the thought in my mind that the efficiency with which US State Department operates may deserve it to be ranked perhaps right at the top. My reference to past ATAA interactions with the State Department had to do with the annual ATAA delegation visits to Turkey, and the follow-up visits to a neighboring country to Turkey. Such countries have been, Bulgaria, Greece, Israel, Azerbaijan, and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. In all of these countries where ATAA has been, including Turkey, we are received by the American embassy officials for formal briefings. These briefings generally last for about an hour. Through high-tech applications of audio/video presentations, the American ambassador in Bulgaria for instance, within an hour, was most informative, even for those of us who may not have been totally current of the past and present of the trilateral relations. By the time the briefing was completed, we knew about the U.S.-Bulgarian, U.S.-Turkish, and Turkish-Bulgarian relations on multi levels ranging from historical, to political, to social, to economic. In a stark contrast, in various other embassies the presentations we received left much for desire. Therefore, needless to say, during my trip to Europe I witnessed the American foreign service at work, and at its best. As I was in the past, you may be unaware that the U.S. State Department is the only one of its kind to require all of its foreign service workers to learn the native language of the country in which they are to be stationed. Therefore, it was always a treat to see an American ambassador in Turkey to speak Turkish and be well understood. Obviously, ambassadors of all countries speak the most popular foreign languages such as English, French, or German, but the American ambassadors provide and exception in the sense that they speak Turkish, Greek, Russian, Chinese, Japanese or Swahili if they are to be stationed in those respective countries. Therefore, it is not unusual for an American foreign service worker to learn and speak 5, 6, of 7 languages throughout their careers. I don't know whether to commend the State Department or its employees for their dedication. As my host in Austria, Mr. Schroeder of the American Embassy stated "It sure isn't easy but I've got to do it, and do it well." The whole trip worked like a clockwork, and an utmost attention to detail was paid by the officials as they provided me with information from A to Z, covering all aspects of the countries I was to visit in advance. They put an extreme effort into arranging for as many Turkish organizations as possible to be present at our joint meetings. What the State Department wants As explained to me, the State Department is eager to see the following happen: - The Turkish communities in the US and Europe initiate a dialogue - They share their experiences of difficulties and successes in integrating into the societies in which they live - They emerge, in the end, as communities benefiting from each others' experiences. I was honored that our ATAA was chosen to take this first, but very important step.       TRAIN TRIP WITH  DR JURDEN FRANKFURT CONFERENCE WITH ASSOCIATIONS GERMANY Dusseldorf, Germany: February 25, 2004 The first meeting was arranged at the residence of the American Council General in Dusseldorf, George Knowles. This meeting intended to introduce me to the Mr. Knowles' Turkish counterpart Turkish Council General Mr. Ates Oktem, Council Charles Walsh, Public Affairs Director Dr. Jurgen Bodenstein (who was also my gracious host in Germany), Council Eric Rueter, Turkish-German Businessmen's Association President Mr. Ilhan Topal, Professor Heinz-Werner Poelchau of German Educational Ministry, Eczacibasi company Germany representative Zeki-Safak Ozan. This, an hour-long meeting allowed me to introduce to the guests the ATAA, its mission, and its past accomplishments as well as the origins of the presence of the Turkish element in the American society since 1860s. I gave examples of the arrival of first Turks from Elazig and Harput in the US, the migration of 1.2 million Turkish citizens to US (200,000 Muslim and the rest non-Muslim), Sultan Abdul Hamid's efforts to set up a Turkish Village at Chicago Festival in 1893, as well as the first organized Turkish societies in mid 1920s. While including and providing information on our sister organization FTAA in New York, I briefly explained ATAA's working structure: I am the current president elected for a two year term, following 10 ATAA volunteer presidents before me, how our umbrella organization in Washington, DC of 57 Turkish-American associations was formed in 1979 by first President Dr. Ulku Ulgur, during the ambassadorship of Sukru Elekdag in Washington, D.C., and the fact that we have 11 Vice-presidents' positions, as well as those of a secretary general, a treasurer, a past president, and a president-elect. I must say that this last concept often attracted the most attention, and at the end, when understood, it received one of the most admiring attention towards ATAA. During this trip. while I have come to learn how our European counterparts in some aspects are more successful than the Turkish-Americans on this side of the Atlantic ocean, and how we trail them in some of their past accomplishments, the following concepts such as the position of a president-elect, the need for a sound umbrella organization, and the need to be nonpolitical when it came to internal Turkish politics seemed as though ones that may be either be adapted by Turkish organizations in Europe in the future or start a dialogue on them. In addition, I talked about the usefulness of another important ATAA function, the annual ATAA conventions, and also how each past president in the past has brought a new dimension to our works such as Mr. Nuri Sabuncu during whose presidency ATAA commenced an annual delegation visit to Turkey, and Mr. Tunca Iskir during whose presidency ATAA began publishing a newspaper called The Turkish Times, and in a way more importantly, annual visits to countries neighboring Turkey. I explain the invaluable experiences ATAA has attained during visits to such countries as Israel, Greece, and Bulgaria. In general, I saw that the Turkish and American foreign ministry officials were aware of ATAA and its functions, but the Germans, and the Austrians were not, and of course this particular fact constituted part of the reason for ATAA president's invitation there. As was the case in all the other meetings, during this getting-to-know-each other visit by the Turkish organizations, the conversations were concentrated on 3 topics: 1. ATAA, its structure, mission, and the works it does towards its goals. 2. Turkish-American demographics: Number of Turks living in the U.S., their age groups, income levels, concentrations in various parts of the U.S.; Our success levels in American political scene. 3. The success levels of Turkish-Americans in the US in integrating into the American fabric: the level of freedom of expression of politics, speech, religion, social behavioral expressions, etc. I was honest with my answers to the questions. In terms of the estimated numbers of 300,000 Turkish-Americans living in the US, I stated that our friends in Europe was more fortunate than us as the exact numbers of the Turks who live in Europe are known, and that the number of 300,000 in the US was only a rough guess and a serious work had to be done with the Turkish government to determine the actual numbers. I gave, as an example one suggestion ATAA president-elect Vural Cengiz has brought up during ATAA delegation visits to Turkey during our talks with the Turkish officials that the customs declaration forms at the entrance points in Turkey had to be reintroduced. Within a matter of a few short years, utilizing various statistical methods, not only the actual numbers of Turks in the US can be determined, but also creation of a very useful database for various very sensitive use would be possible. During this meeting, the Turkish Council General Mr. Ates Oktem also provided for the guests some additional enlightening information on Turkey, as well as his experiences during the time he was posted in the United States. Essen, Germany: February 26, 2004 My host in Germany, Dr. Jurgen Bodenstein accompanied me to Essen for a meeting with The Center for Turkish Studies, and its officials. After an hour long train ride, we met in Essen with the center's director Mr. Professor Dr. Faruk Sen and other officials. The Center for Turkish Studies is a German State and private-funded organization in existence since 1985. It is an accredited German NGO, and in its Board of Trustees, there even exist some German government ministers such as Birgit Fischer, and Hartmut Krebs. The center aims to create and improve public awareness and knowledge about Turkey and Turkish migrants well as the immigrants form the European Union. This is primary fulfilled through social research, personation of policy proposals. I found out that the leadership of the center was well informed about the ATAA and its past works and successes. During this meeting, in addition to what was already known by us, I explained the currents works of ATAA, and there was a short discussion about the necessity and usefulness of more Turkish non-governmental organizations abroad and the dire importance of their independent approaches in promoting the Turkish issues, and creating a fair public awareness. The meeting ended with mutual promisees of further strengthened communications and possible mutual projects in the future. Essen, Germany: February 26, 2004 Dr. Jurgen Bodenstein accompanied me to Cologne Intercultural Center for this meeting titled: "Discussion About Integration/Assimilation of Turkish Minorities in the US". Representatives of four organizations were present, and I mainly spoke of ATAA, its mission, and works in the US. Frankfurt, Germany: February, 27, 2004 This luncheon meeting attended by the leaderships of 27 Turkish organizations across Germany took place at Amerika Haus, a US Embassy annex, and was the main meeting intended for my visit to Germany. Besides the American embassy official Gerhard Wiesinger, the Turkish Council General Mr. Ali Riza Colak also attended this gathering Mr. Wiesinger opened the meeting and thanked the participants for traveling long distances and attending the meeting, and asked the Turkish Council General to address the crowd. I was most touched by the fiery speech Mr. Ali Riza Colak gave when he encouraged the Turkish organizations in Germany to be better organized and more active in the German society. Based in his experiences from his days of being stationed in Houston, Mr. Ali Riza Colak praised ATAA for its currents state of organization for better successes to build upon its past achievements. Often, we do witness the type of encouraging speeches by our foreign officers, but what made this particular instance special was the way Mr. Colak and his speech were received by the participants. Mr. Colak, it seemed, due to his extraordinary active and personal involvement in the Turkish communities during his time in Germany, had earned the admiration of all present, and all that he said was closely listened, appreciated, and applauded by his audience. Considering the type of fragmentation between various Turkish organizations, the way Mr. Colak was received by all people attending the meeting spoke volumes about his extraordinary qualities as a Turkish foreign service officer. Also, when I explained to the audience during my talk later, the type of future we envisioned for ATAA, I discovered that ATAA found a staunch ally in Mr. Colak to its approaches for being and independent American NGO, and exercising its functions in being a civil organization. My speech here also revolved around giving general information on the past of Turkish existence in the US, and ATAA's mission statement, as well as its working structure. Some of the key points I made were: - ATAA's working structure - ATAA's Mission Statement (please see details at www.ataa.org) - Demographic information of Turks in US. - First Turks in America - Other Turkish Organizations in the US (FTAA, The Turkish Forum, The Turkish Business Forum), ATC (American Turkish Council) - The Assimilation or Integration of Turkish-Americans into the American society:       US CONSUL GENERAL CHARLES WALSH AND TURKISH CONSUL GENERAL ALI RIZA COLAK MINISTER COUNSELOR DANIEL WEYGRANDT, AUSTRIA I stated my opinion that the Turks were in categories in my mind: Those who have been here for 30 years and more, and the rest. Those who have been in US for more that approximately 30 years are the ones with grown children and grandchildren. These people no longer utter the word of returning to Turkey. Among this group, generally speaking, the first generation, the parents are well integrated. They take advantage of their constitutional privileges and are for instance involved in American politics, and they scrutinize who they vote for based in the intended politicians allegiances to the Turkish issues. When it comes to the children of these people though, the picture changes. Again generally speaking, not an integration but an assimilation is in progress. And, the 3rd generation is totally lost. Almost none speak Turkish, belong to Turkish organizations, or have allegiances to Turkish issues (a much needed voice for a strong Turkish lobby) Then, there is the group who has been there for less that 30 years. This group is interesting, because, they live in a state of purgatory: " I am going back to Turkey one day" is the general outlook to their present existence in the US. For them, it is just a matter of when. Therefore, it is rather difficult to speak of either integration or assimilation for this group. They may become US citizens but they may or may not vote. Therefore what effort they put out to be a part of the Turkish activism has to be drilled out of them. This drilling action must be performed by the Turkish organizations who are led by some heroic Turkish-Americans. The success of the action mainly depends on the personalities of such as people as Coskun Caglar, Erhan Uskup in Houston, Mehmet Celebi in Chicago, or Sema Kara in Los Angeles. In general, the Turks who have just landed abroad are eager to meet other Turks, and it is up to the associations to keep them interested and attached. Once again generally, after a while all associations experience losses and their existence is depended on new blood. There, we are different from some other ethnic groups in the sense that we are unable to retain the older members. If I were to speak of the current overall picture of the Turkish associations/derneks in the US, this is exactly the stage at which we are. Here is the good news though: Despite all of this, despite all the deficiencies of Turkish civic picture in the US, those who do do heroic work in the name of the rest of us, and on behalf of all of us create wonders and miracles. The successes of groups such ac ATAA, FTAA and all the other organizations under their wings are impressive despite many less than perfect circumstances. Therefore, one is to wonder, how much stronger we would be if were just a little bit more organized, if our organizations did a little bit more than they do now to earn more of the trust of more Turks and these numbers soared. I believe in my heart, there would be no holding Turks back then. In this aspect, my organization is doing more to reinvent the wheel. We are more than ever, dedicated to being democratic, transparent, independent, accountable, and inclusive. Even these are not enough for success however. An association abroad, if it's mission statement so indicates that it is there because it wants to 1) improve the Turkish image, and/or 2) it wants to be strong to defend or seek its minority rights in that country, it must concentrate on their membership numbers, and seek to increase it with smart methods. At the top of this methods, there comes the principle of identifying the commonalties, and getting rid of the items (especially political) that separate us. If we need to protest the local school district because of an item in the curriculum that teaches a Turkish child how awful his ancestors were, it won't make a bit of a difference to the American school district officers who dictate what is in the school books, whether the parent of the child is a supporter of Party A or Party B in Turkey. Therefore, we have no luxury of being divided among ourselves based on our political inclinations in Turkish politics. We must identify the commonalties, and discard the differences. Commonalties are easy to find for those who live abroad. Getting rid of the differences is more difficult, but it can be done. If Turks in Turkey are divided in Turkey on the Cyprus issue, don't even consider making statements as an association defending either view. If Turks in Turkey are divided whether the Armenian border needs to be opened or nor, don't talk about it. The same also applies to discussing the current Arab-Israeli conflict, or whether Turkey should or should not join the European Union. All of these are issues that divide Turkey, and we don't need to, as association leaderships, talk about them in America as we don't have the luxury to loose even one single Turk's membership to our association. 5 or 10 year from now, Arabs and Jews can kiss and make up, Turkey may be permanently rejected from EU or accepted into it, or the Armenian border is sooner or later opened. In the mean time, in those 5 or 10 years, what we have done is to have shot ourselves in the foot, and lost valuable years when we can have stronger numbers, twisting the arms of American politicians with our numbers -therefore votes- to force them to deliver the helicopters Turkey has paid for that the US congress will not approve of their delivery, to force them to lift the quotas on export Turkish textiles to the US, to force them to lift the embargo on Azerbaijan, and boycott New York Times or National Geographic because they spew venom with anti-Turkish sentiments. We don't' need to live in small Turkeys outside of Turkey, and deal with petty nitty gritty of daily Turkish political life in Turkey. We don't live there! We live here, and here; we have to have goals set for much longer than the next 5 or 10 years. We have a lot of catching up to do Greek and Armenian anti-Turkish lobbies who loose not a day quarreling about poetical happenings in Greece or Armenia. On these basis of this approach, I respectfully declined any questions by the counterparts and the media in both Germany and Austria. I was frequently asked what ATAA's formal position was on various issues from the European Union to the war in Iraq. When I stated that ATAA had no endorsements or formal positions, often there was a surprise of the faces of the people. However, that only lasted as long as it took me to explain our logic behind such a policy. Oddly however, while they agreed that it was the appropriate approach, they stated it could never be done on in Austria! By the way, that was the general perception in Germany. I stated also the following: "When I first found out that I was coming to Europe in a formal capacity, at first I thought that you had things to learn from us, the Turks living in America. But it seems perhaps that its other way around. Because under much worse and adverse conditions, and positions, you have, in a way created more wonders here than us in the US. We have been in America since 1860s, you only arrived here in 1960s. Most of fist immigrants/workers coming here were barely educated, but to America, went almost the cream of the crop of Turkey in terms of the level of education. You, in Europe experienced a lot of discrimination and alienation, in America, at lest until 9/11, Turks have experienced non of the above. Still though, you have managed to elect Turkish representatives to your local and federal political positions, and to date, we have not been able to accomplish that in the US. So, for that you are to be congratulated. There is one area though, in which, the Turks in the US have been more successful that you: There has been no splintering and multi level divisions among the Turkish organizations in the US, and at least 2 umbrella organization have been founded, one 50 years old, and the other; 25. In Germany however, there are more than 1,500 associations, and they have no umbrella organization, and therefore not one single voice speaking for all". At that point I asked if there was a hope of uniting under one umbrella and that response was "almost impossible". However, when I made the humble suggestion that perhaps it could be done under the leadership of someone that everyone respected without any ambitions of any gain (a Sukru Elekdag of Germany - a man, Turks in America was so fortunate to have as the Turkish ambassador in the US during the foundation process of ATAA), the faces in the room seemed curious, often with squinted eyes glaring at the ceiling. One person did say however that there would be no such uniter that they could think of, while someone did utter the name of Onur Oymen. They even claimed that many of these major organization would not even attend a preliminary planning session for such an endeavor. Something interesting happened though at this point. When I jokingly said: "What about in the US? Would you come to for a meeting in the US if we invited you?", I was surprised the nodding heads saying anxiously and with smiles "Yes!" At this point I began telling them about the Annual Convention of ATAA, and that perhaps something similar to it could be organized for them for various discussion panels to speak about a plan for an umbrella organization in Germany. Once again, they said "you invite us, we will come!".       VIENNA CONFERENCE WITH TURKISH ASSOCIATIONS AUSTRIA Vienna, Austria: March 1, 2004 Press Conference Peter Schroeder, public affairs officer of US embassy in Vienna accompanied me in the morning, to American Reference Center for a press briefing. The center is a part of the US Embassy and specializes in providing current information on US foreign policy, European-US relations, domestic politics, the environment, and economy. (www.usembassy.at) . Besides the Embassy's Head of the Press Section, Dr. Karin Czerny, the media attending this event was; Birol Kilic of International Austrian Turkish Press Association, Muhammet Maral of Turkiye Gazetesi, Ozan Onal of Hurriyet Gazetesi, Ozden Celik of Radyo Merhaba Vienna. During this meeting, the course of the program was pretty much as the earlier ones: I provided information on ATAA, and Turkish history in the US, and made statements similar to the ones earlier. Courtesy Visit in the afternoon to Turkish Ambassador to Austria, Hon. Mithat Balkan From the first minutes of my arrival in Vienna, Mr. Yavuz Kuscu, the president of the umbrella organizations in Austria, paid a constant attention to me and assumed the position of a voluntary, and a most gracious host. He periodically checked on me with phone calls to my hotel room, and taking me out for meals. Obviously, this was an attention paid not to me personally, but a kind respect paid by him to his counterpart organization across the ocean, ATAA. I hope that we can have the privilege of returning his kindness in the future. In the afternoon, upon Mr. Kuscu's suggestion, we met an awesome gentleman, his excellency the Ambassador Balkan. He too was familiar with ATAA, and forwarded to him the respects of the board of directors of ATAA, and spoke of the current activities of ATAA. Evening Program at the Turkish Hall Organized by Mr. Daniel Weygrandt, Deputy Chief of Mission of US Embassy, this particular event was held with the participation of about 125 people and was the highlight of Vienna visit. Audience was the representatives of various Turkish organizations in the Vienna area, prominent Austria citizens of Turkish decent, youth of Turkish decent, and the members of media Also attended by Mr. Schroeder, and the Public Affairs Counselor, Dr. John Quintus, among the speakers of the meeting was Mr. Yavuz Kuscu whom I was told by Mr., We       WITH TURKISH AMBASSADOR MİTHAT BALKAN AND TURKISH FEDERATION PRESIDENT YAVUZ KUŞCU WITH YAVUZ KUSCU, PRESIDENT, AUSTRIA TURKISH FEDERATION     Mr. Kuscu seems to have done wonders in Austria. He is an extremely pleasant person, who seems to have a cooperation effect of everyone around him. As ambassador Balkan also mentioned earlier, only under the leadership of such a man, so many Turkish organizations could still remain under the same roof. The opening speech was delivered by the Deputy Chief of Mission, Mr. Weygrandt. He has been involved in a series of programs which seek out to the immigrant organizations and to Muslim communities in order to bring them into an ongoing dialogue with the embassy. Q&A sessions All meetings in both countries included question and answer sections. During this meeting as well as the major meeting in Vienna, I was also frequently asked about possible racism, prejudice, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, etc. in the US. Briefly, I stated that over all, Turks in the US, are not concerned with discrimination, because the US, unlike Europe is a nation of immigrants, and we largely are not victims of racism or a lack of freedom of speech. Overall If I were to sum up my Europe experience: - I am quite thankful to the American government that the Turks on both sides of the Atlantic took important first step to communicate. As a matter of fact, as some Turkish officials have stated, it should and could have been thought of by us the Turks, or the Turkish government sooner. - There has to be an ongoing communication between Turks in Europe and the United States. This is process from which we can only expect to gain benefits. Ercument Kilic President, ATAA       PRESS CONFERNECE IN VIENNA   HESSEN TURKISH-GERMAN ASSOCIATIONS