The American Turkish Society and its cultural division, Moon and Stars Project, are pleased to support School of Visual Arts Benefit Sale for Priene Hali. Established and emerging artists alike have donated over 80 works of art, each available for purchase for $75, to benefit the Priene Hali rug workshop in Güllübahçe, Turkey. The workshop has taught the craft of pile rug weaving to over 50 women from Güllübahçe and its environs, allowing them to create and sell rugs independently and providing a community center.

Artworks range from drawings and paintings to photographs and editioned prints. Note: Cash only accepted for purchases.

Priene Hali traces its origins to a 2006 public-private partnership to provide women vocational training in the Turkish village of Güllübahçe. Under the leadership of Fatma Öztürk, the director and hodja (master teacher) of the studio, and with support from the Güllübahçe Municipality, the community has grown to include over 50 women who are practiced in traditional pile rug weaving.

The benefit sale is organized by SVA faculty member Peter Hristoff and presented by the BFA Fine Arts and BFA Visual & Critical Studies departments in partnership with The American Turkish Society.

Special thanks to the following vendors for their beverage and snack donations for the event:

U.S. KIDS AND THEIR PARENTS PARTNER UP WITH WEAVERS OF A LOCAL TURKISH VILLAGE TO CREATE TURKISH RUGS

In 2012, The American Turkish Society awarded a curriculum development grant to teachers Pamela Saturday and Susan Brown of PS290 to develop a project called "Turkish Art of Weaving." The grant was used to create a Parent/Child Turkish Rug Design Workshop in which students worked with their parents to create custom rug designs; which the women of Gullubahce in Turkey weaved into beautiful Turkish rugs. These rugs were displayed at the school's art show on Monday, November 19, 5pm.

Note for U.S. Teachers>> Applications are currently being accepted for 2013 Curriculum Development Grants

Join The American Turkish Society Book Club for a discussion of The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk

The Museum of Innocence is an internationally-acclaimed book which tells a remarkable love story, taking place in the Istanbul between 1975 and the present. In the author’s own words, it deals with “obsessive passion and the great question: What is love, really?”

Orhan Pamuk, the recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, is one of the central figures in contemporary Turkish literature. He is currently the Robert Yik-Fong Tam Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University.

The discussion will be moderated by Frances Kazan, an international author, lecturer, producer, and arts supporter, whose published work includes academic writing in “Halide Edib ve Amerika”, as well as historically-inspired fiction in works such as the 1986 “Goodnight Little Sister,” the 2001 “Halide’s Gift”, and the upcoming title “The Dervish.”

Praise for The Museum of Innocence:

“In sum, The Museum of Innocence is a deeply human and humane story…”
Maria Arana, Washington Post, 20 October 2009

“…a very straightforward story of a dreamer in love…”
Pico Iyer, The New York Review of Books in Huffington Post, 29 October 2009

“…an enthralling, immensely enjoyable piece of storytelling.”
James Lasdun, The Guardian 8 January 2010

Join the American Turkish Society for the private viewing (in IMAX!) of this highly anticipated film featuring an award winning cast of stars including Daniel Craig. A spectacular opportunity to celebrate the return of James Bond to Turkey and the 50th anniversary of the Bond film series. This globe spanning film is packed with action scenes atop Istanbul’s iconic Grand Bazaar not to mention a train chase in Adana, which fans can look forward to.

VIP ticket package includes pre-screening cocktail reception from 6:30pm until 8:00pm offering free Turkish food/wine, and live James Bond theme music by world famous trumpeter Joey Morant followed by screening and after party.

Regular ticket includes screening and entrance to a lively after-party.

Don’t miss this unforgettable evening of the new 007 Skyfall movie, cocktails, music, tasty treats, and an after-party (cash bar) at 1 0ak (453 W 17th St), to be attended by over 700 Bond enthusiasts.

Dress Code: Bond Style Tuxedo, Sharp Suit, Evening Dress

You can join our facebook event page for updates and information about the film and our event.

THE BENEFIT COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN TURKISH SOCIETY INVITES YOU TO THE GALA AFTER PARTY

The Society’s Sixth Annual Gala Dinner will honor Philip I. Kent, Chairman & CEO of Turner Broadcasting System Inc. and Arzuhan Doğan Yalçındağ, Chairwoman of Doğan Media Holding, and celebrate the joint venture of Time Warner and Doğan Holding in CNN Türk.

Donald J. Trump, Chairman and President, The Trump Organization , and Christiane Amanpour, CNN Chief International Correspondent , will serve as Dinner Committee Co-Chairs and present our honorees with their awards at the event.

The celebration will continue with cocktails, dessert, and dancing at a festive inaugural After Party with over 300 young, dynamic, and accomplished guests from Turkey and the United States, including distinguished gala dinner attendees.

The After Party will feature global dance music by Claudius Raphael, New York City’s premier DJ entertainer, with a guest appearance by Joey Morant, following the performance of his popular jazz band at the dinner. Delicacies from Turkey, celebrity appearances, photo opportunities, and wide media coverage will make this one of the most talked about parties. The event will mark a unique occasion where an elegant dinner in the Grand Ballroom is followed by a party in the Oak Room of The Plaza Hotel, a New York City landmark.

After Party tickets are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

** All Gala Dinner guests are invited to the After Party. To purchase a ticket to the Gala Dinner and also join us at the After Party, return the reply form below. **

On October 18, The American Turkish Society will host its sixth Annual Gala Dinner at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. The dinner will honor Philip I. Kent, Chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. and Arzuhan Doğan Yalçındağ, Chairwoman of Doğan TV Holding A.Ş and celebrate the joint venture of Time Warner and Doğan Holding in CNN Türk.

The Society inaugurated its annual gala dinner in 2006 to celebrate successful joint ventures between American and Turkish corporations, starting with the 50-year partnership of Ford Motor Company and Koç Holding in Turkey. Our celebrations have since highlighted the partnerships of Citi-Sabanci Holding; GE and Doğuş Group; The Coca-Cola Company and Anadolu Group; and, most recently, Turkcell’s ten years on the New York Stock Exchange.

This year we are excited to dedicate this prominent event to highlighting CNN Türk as the first television channel in Turkey co-founded with a foreign media company.

Our gala dinner welcomes distinguished guests from public and private sectors, including diplomats, leading business executives, artists, scholars and top journalists, with over 350 guests from Turkey and the United States. Furthermore, as The Society’s main fundraising event, the dinner raises over $500,000 each year for our educational and cultural programs, which include scholarships, student and teacher exchange programs, artists’ residencies, performances, lecture series, and grants.

Please return the reply form below to reserve your tables, tickets, and journal messages. Tickets may also be purchased through the "Register for this Event" link below.

ATS Gala Teaser: Five years of ATS Gala Dinners:

The American Turkish Society and the Institute for the Study of the Ancient Worldat New York University (ISAW) are pleased to bring you the fifth lecture in their series on the archaeology of Turkey featuring Dr. Christine Thomas, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

More than a century of archaeological work at Ephesus on the west coast of Turkey has unearthed impressive marble buildings in its urban center, locations dominated by the monuments of the wealthy and powerful. But for the overwhelming majority of the city’s ancient inhabitants, who possessed neither wealth nor power, other parts of the city better represent the lived spaces of their daily activities.

Recent geomorphological research in Ephesus has developed the first detailed outline of the ancient coastline during a period of rapid alluvial deposition in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Magnetometry imaging and ground-penetrating radar surveys in the harbor area have indicated structures that provide a more complete picture of the urban landscape, and a more promising location for the social classes from which the first Christians were drawn.

Professor Christine M. Thomas

Educated in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Minnesota and the Eberhardt-Karls Universit䴬 in Tbingen, Germany, Christine M. Thomas took a Ph.D. in the Study of Religion at Harvard University. After an appointment as a Junior Fellow with the Society of Fellows at Harvard, she joined the Religious Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she is an Associate Professor. A veteran of annual fieldwork campaigns in Turkey since 1991, she has written extensively on ancient Christian literature and on the religions of Asia Minor in the Roman imperial period.

The lecture will start promptly at 6pm. Admission to the ISAW Lecture Hall closes 10 minutes after the scheduled start time.

The event is free and open to the public, however space is limited and pre-registration is required. You may register below.

Reception to follow

Please join us for a Levin Turkish Fellows Academic Presentation entitled “Foreign Policy Decision-Making in Turkey: The Iraq War Decision and U.S.-Turkey Relations since 2003” by Professor Ozgur Ozdamar of Bilkent University.

Turkey's decision not to join the Iraq War in 2003 was based on a complex array of factors. Dr. Ozgur Ozdamar will analyze Turkey's decision-making process as it pertained to entering the war, admitting U.S. troops in Turkey and subsequent issues related to permission for Turkey to use force in Iraq following the 2003 invasion by the U.S.-led coalition. His analysis will focus on legal and political aspects, as well as implications for U.S.-Turkey bilateral relations then and now.

Registration begins at 5:45pm

Reception to Follow

Register here for this free event by September 10

Assistant Professor Ozgur Ozdamar is Deputy Chair and Director of Graduate Studies at Bilkent University's Department of International Relations. He has taught at different institutions, such as the University of Missouri-Columbia, Stephens College, TOBB-ETU, the Turkish Military Academy and the National Security College. He has written over twenty scholarly publications for academic journals, books and think tanks and given more than forty conference presentations regarding international issues. Dr. Ozdamar's research focuses on foreign policy analysis, international relations theories and security studies. Specifically, he has written articles on Turkish and American foreign policies, Iranian politics, Black Sea regional security, EU energy security, ethno-religious conflicts and religion in world politics. Dr. Ozdamar's articles have been published in academic journals, such as Foreign Policy Analysis, Terrorism and Political Violence, Middle East Policy, Uluslararasi Iliskiler and International Studies Review. He currently serves as section officer at the ISA-ENMISA, on the editorial board of Foreign Policy Analysis, and as editor of All Azimuth: Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace.

The book explores the impressions of Ottoman material culture on Europe in the early modern age when the expansion of Ottoman territory created common borders and intensive political, diplomatic and trade ties with Europe. The book's underlying research begins in 1453 with the conquest of Istanbul and encompasses the period ending with the Ottoman's last siege of Vienna and the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. Demonstrating that this period was marked with significant cultural transfers and translations between the Ottomans and European, the book shows that often such cultural impressions acquired new meanings in European cultural life. The authors present their findings in a visually stunning format, while providing a comprehensive intellectual narrative that explains the artistic and cultural exchanges between the Ottoman Empire and Europe. The 443-page book includes 400 images, 341 sources, and devotes special sections to Textiles, Tiles and Ceramics, Flowers and Plants, Carpets, Arms and Armor, Turkish Image, Crescent and Commonalities.

Dr. Nurhan Atasoy served as Dean of Istanbul University Faculty of Letters until her retirement in 1999. Dr. Atasoy has been awarded numerous international and national awards, including the Outstanding Service Award by Turkey in 2006. She is currently Senior Scholar in Residence at the Turkish Cultural Foundation. Dr. Lâle Uluç completed her Ph.D. at New York University and teaches at Bosphorus University Department of History.

This program is co-presented by The Film Society of Lincoln Center

”Turkish cinema has become a significant presence on the international scene…” - NEW YORKER

”Most American moviegoers probably have little experience with Turkish movies. That makes the 29-film series… all the more valuable.” - NEW YORK TIMES

The film series curated by Richard Peña, Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, features 29 feature films ranging from the 1950s to recent works, all restored, copied and subtitled in English. Films are selected for their quality, themes, and significance in artistic and international recognition levels as well as being a milestone in the film history of Turkey.

The festival runs from now until May 10, 2012. For remaining screenings, please view our schedule here. We are happy to announce a new screening time for CAN on Monday May 7, 8:40pm followed by a Q&A with the director. Read a piece about CAN written by the director at Huffington Post.

Don’t miss our CLOSING PARTY on Thursday, May 10 at 7:00pm at the Furman Gallery located inside the Walter Reade Theater. The event is free, but please RSVP here. Following the party, make sure to get your tickets for our closing film FUTURE LASTS FOREVER at 8:10pm here, which includes a Q&A with director Ozcan Alper.

Click here for the CATALOG.

Watch our TRAILER here.

Read our PRESS page here.

More details are available here.



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This program is co-presented by The Film Society of Lincoln Center

The film series curated by Richard Peña, Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, features 25 feature films ranging from the 1950s to recent works, all restored, copied and subtitled in English. Films are selected for their quality, themes, and significance in artistic and international recognition levels as well as being a milestone in the film history of Turkey.

More details are available here

The American Turkish Society and Global Friendship Through Space Education invite you to a gathering of Space Camp Turkey family and friends.

Come with your children ages 7-15 to learn more about Space Camp Turkey from NYC participants and take part in youth-led cultural exchange. If you are interested in participating, please RSVP to info@americanturkishsociety.org.

Founded in 2002 by Kaya and Mary Tuncer, Space Camp Turkey has welcomed over 100,000 participants from nearly 55 countries. As the fourth Space Camp in the world and the only such facility in Turkey, the Middle East, eastern/southern Europe and Asia, Space Camp Turkey is indeed Kaya Tuncer's "gift to the children of the world."

SUPPORT SPACE CAMP TURKEY

In honor of our late Board Member, Mr. Kaya Tuncer, and his foundation, Global Friendship Through Space Education (GFTSE), The American Turkish Society's Education Program invites you to participate in a matching scholarship funds campaign to bring young people from the United States and Turkey together at Space Camp Turkey in Summer 2012.

DONATE ONLINE

Dr. Ufuk Kocabas, Istanbul University Yenikapi Underwater Project Director, will present on the marine excavation and preservation challenges of the ancient port of Byzantine Constantinople, discovered in 2004 during the underwater construction of the Marmaray metro linking Europe and Asia. Under his leadership, 36 ships and over 35,000 artifacts have been excavated in the ancient Istanbul harbor, making radical contributions to archaeologists' understanding of Byzantine ship construction, industry, and trade.

The presentation will conclude with a question and answer session, as well as feature remarks by Sibel Bulay, EMBARQ Turkey Founder, on transportation challenges at Istanbul's historical peninsula and understanding of the need for cultural preservation. There will be an opening reception.

For more information about Yenikapi archaeological excavations, please click here.

Our special thanks to World Monuments Fund for hosting the event, and to EMBARQ for their promotional support. This event is co-presented with American Friends of Turkey.

The documentary film, directed by Turkish filmmaker Aslihan Unaldi, tells the story of Istanbul's struggle to come to terms with accelerated population growth and car-centric policies that have dominated its development in the last five decades - issues that are challenging megacities around the world. Once an ancient imperial capital, now a bustling modern megalopolis, will Istanbul renew itself once again, or succumb to uncontrolled motorization and urban growth? Featuring interviews with Dogan Kuban, John Freely, Edhem Eldem and others.

A question & answer session with Producer and Director Aslihan Unaldi and Executive Producer & EMBARQ Turkey Founder Sibel Bulay will follow the film screening. An opening reception will be held.

"Overdrive" is produced by EMBARQ- a program of the DC-based World Resources Institute that aims to create sustainable transport solutions worldwide including Turkey. For more information about the film, including trailer and awards, please click here.

Special thanks to EMBARQ for their support.

In the year 1000, the economy of the Middle East was at least as advanced as that of Europe. But by 1800, the region had fallen dramatically behind in living standards. What caused this long divergence? And why does the Middle East remain underdeveloped compared with the West?

Professor Timur Kuran of Duke University will address these questions and expand upon Turkey's role in the economic development of the Middle East in this upcoming discussion of his book, The Long Divergence, How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East.

H.E. Ambassador Namık Tan, who has been serving as the Turkish Ambassador to the United States since February 2010, will deliver a luncheon address entitled, "Turkish Foreign Policy in a Changing World," and answer questions from the audience.

This event is a part of The Society’s long-standing Meet the Ambassadors Program, which has hosted a number of U.S. and Turkish Ambassadors, including Ambassadors Mort Abramowitz, Eric Edelman, Marc Grossman, O. Faruk Loğoğlu, Mark Parris, W. Robert Pearson, Ross Wilson, Nabi Şensoy, Baki Ilkin, James Jeffrey, and Ertuğrul Apakan.

Pre-Registration has closed for this event.
For questions, please email info@americanturkishsociety.org.

This event is free of charge, and is available to individual and corporate members of The Society only.

Pre-Registration by Friday, December 30 is required. To register online please follow the link below.

To find out more about membership with The Society, follow this link.

Special thanks to Herrick, Feinstein LLP for hosting this event