Mr. Ambassador, what advice would you give us in order for Professionals Insight magazine to succeed?

First of all I would like to congratulate you in initiating such a magazine. I believe that Professionals Insight will be able to fill an important gap in the UK Turkish media.

Professionals Insight is expected to create a sense of togetherness and provide a communication channel between Turkish professionals living in the UK, especially London. I wish you the best of luck in your journey to success.

Without doubt, for Professionals Insight to succeed, it needs to portray quality, be objective and address the Turkish national identity and mentality. Subsequently, it is important to address a wider target group. As the magazine reaches more people in the UK, the stronger the bond will get between Turkish Professionals.

  We know that you follow closely Turkeys bid to get into the EU. Do you believe that the Turks living in the EU will have a positive contribution to Turkey’s negotiations with EU? If the EU does accept us, will the Turkish community’s situation in EU change?

The Turkish community within the European Union are carrying a huge burden within the political and social arena and are supporting our country’s effort in joining the EU. It is natural for the support from the Turkish community living in the EU to increase and work harder for Turkey’s inclusion in the EU.This can be achieved by collate effort.With the inclusion of Turkey to the EU this will inflict positive and lucrative effect on our people living in EU.

  Amongst the Turkish Professionals, we can see no unity between those that were born in the UK and those that later came to the county. Does the Turkish Embassy have any project(s) to unite these groups under one umbrella and integrate them into the society? What will you like us to do to improve this?

We have approximately 25 organisations that are in contact with the Turkish Embassy & Consulate. Amongst these organisations, 16 of them are members of the UK Turkish Organisations Federation, which was established in 2002. Setting up such a federation was an important project to establish, encourage and sustain the collectiveness amongst our people. Our Embassy and Consulate has supported this organisation to help collate the Turkish clubs and societies under one-roof.

Effectively, we are in constant contact and attend meetings with these organisations that have been setup by our people.These organisations play a vital role in the community that they belong.To express our views and attitude with respect to certain issues regarding our country, to increase Turkey’s profile abroad these organisations carry an important role and responsibility.

Simultaneously, we need to be well organised and subsequently try to solve any problems that will occur. Both under the roof of the Turkish Organisations’ Federation and with the effort that is put forward by the individual organisations, I strongly believe that we are going to increase the profile of the Turkish people and add flair to the events organised in the UK.

We hope to see Professionals Insight participate in such organisations.The experience and knowledge that you gather and share with our people in this country will be beneficial and can be a source of inspiration to students in the UK. Conversely, this sharing of information and experience will encourage similar activities and increase cooperation between other organisations. Our aim should be to protect our country’s interests to the best of our abilities; be able to promote them well; in some subjects be able to communicate our cause in a valuable way and in some cases,pay our dues to our country. Our people should increase our success rate and effectively their living standard and most of all integrate themselves to British society and live in peace. Consequently, this will naturally increase the number of events that promote the Turkish identity and success.

As the Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey, I would like to stress the fact that I offer my support to any project, event, etc., that is initiated with a view to favour our Country and people.

  What sort of effects, if any, will the results of UK’s election in May and the EU Presidency being handed over to the UK, have on Turkey?

UK has been supporting Turkey’s inclusion to the EU, for a long time. This support is expected to be prolonged in the next term. While UK is president of EU,we expect the Turkish – EU relations to be carried further, and importantly, we expect steps to be taken in order to lift the banning of the embargo that has been imposed on Cypriot-Turks.

  Recently, Royal Academy of Art’s has displayed the honourable TURKS exhibition. We are aware of your support to this exhibition. Does our Embassy or the Ministry of Culture have related projects lined up?

The exhibition; “Turks: A Journey of a Thousand Years 600-1600” that took place in the Royal Academy of Arts between the dates 22 January – 12 April 2005, has attracted a lot of attention from the UK- as well as the foreign media.The cultural and art reviewers have expressed their amazement, which resulted in approximately 270.000 people visit the exhibition. After the negotiation date of 17 December 2005 from EU, the launch of the exhibition has been another success in the geopolitical arena.

In context of the exhibition, on 22 February 2005, Güher and Süher Pekinel siblings have given a concert in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, in conjunction with the London Mozart Players orchestra.

Again, during the duration of the Turks exhibition, Dr. Philip Mansel, Historian and Prof. Dr. Günsel Renda, Art Historian, have on 23rd March and 5th April 2005 have given conferences at the Turkish Embassy.

Simultaneously, on the 13th of April 2005, the Director of the “Hititler” documentary had the UK Premier of his new documentary “Gelibolu”, at the Imperial War Museum, with the participation of 200 viewers, which took seven years to complete

  What content, style, and presentation would you like to see in future issues of Professionals Insight?

The method of presentation and distribution of the magazine is significantly effective. Especially, when the professional people are interacting with computers during their daily work, I believe the most appropriate method of communication is chosen – digital e-mail copies.With regards to the content, I believe that it will be useful to enlighten the society of; the daily life of the Turkish Professional; their confrontation to the daily changes; and the issues that concern Turkey.Amongst these issues the first thing that comes to mind are the Armenian problem; our view towards the issues concerning Cyprus; the conflict aroused in Northern Iraq; and our goal in getting acceptance for the EU.Without any doubt, this list can be extended further.

Furthermore, I believe if the details of those that receive this magazine are stored on a central database and then if you can allow these people to communicate with each other – this will be the greatest favour that it can do to its readers and the Turkish community. I would like to wish you luck once again and remind you that as The Ambassador of the Turkish Republic, I will be offering my full support.