On September 17, TCA facilitated the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) grant award of $150,000 to Strategies for International Development (SID) a DC-based not-for-profit that helps alleviate rural poverty in Central and South America. This is the first time TIKA has awarded a grant to a country in Latin America.

In honor of this grant, TCA organized a reception held on Capitol Hill where Turkish Ambassador Namik Tan gave remarks and SID subsequently hosted a dinner where Members of Congress Virginia Foxx and Ed Whitfield, Co-Chairs of the Turkey Caucus; Chairman of the Hispanic Caucus and Institute Ruben Hinojosa; Jim Moran; and Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen were present. For more information on this grant please click here.

On September 9, the American Turkish Association of Washington, D.C. (ATA-DC) organized an event on Capitol Hill with support from TCA to celebrate the Second Turkish Cultural Heritage Month. The event, which featured remarks by Turkish Ambassador Namik Tan, Washington D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray, and President and CEO of Meridian International Center Ambassador Stuart Holliday, launched the ATA-DC’s month-long festivities in the Nation’s capital celebrating Turkish heritage and culture, including the Annual Washington Turkish Festival on Freedom Plaza. In 2013, readers of the Washington City Paper voted the Turkish Festival as the “Best Cultural Festival of DC”.

On September 26, a reception was held in New York City in honor of the President of the Turkey, H. E. Abdullah Gul, where he met with leaders of the Turkish-American community. On behalf of TCA, President G. Lincoln McCurdy and Sevin Elekdag, TCA Research Fellow, attended the event.

On September 17, H.E. Zafer Caglayan, Minister of Economy of Turkey, met with Turkish business and community leaders In New York City to discuss Turkey's economy and the prospects of a Free Trade Agreement between the U.S. and Turkey. TCA was represented by Research Fellow, Sevin Elekdag.

A new book, War and Nationalism: The Balkan Wars, 1912-1913 and their Sociopolitical Implications published by the University of Utah Press is now available. Edited by Hakan Yavuz and Isa Blumi, the book offers a comprehensive examination of the Balkan Wars of 1912 to 1913, which contributed to the outbreak of World War I.  Published with support from a TCA grant that underwrites the Turkish Studies Project at University of Utah, War and Nationalism is a compilation of papers presented at the 2010 conference on “The Sociopolitical Implications of the Dissolution of the Ottoman State: Causes of the Balkan Wars and the Role of the Ottoman State”, organized by the Turkish Studies Project in Salt Lake City and offers new research on Ottoman and European history.

In August, TCA awarded six Study Abroad scholarships to students of African American, Hispanic American and Native American heritage. Of the students who received TCA scholarships in August and will study in Turkey, two come from San Diego University, and one each from Georgetown, Syracuse, UC-Merced and Auburn universities. The total number of TCA Study Abroad in Turkey Scholarships awarded to American minority students has now reached 311 since the program's inception in 2008.

On September 18, The American Friends of Turkey (AFOT) hosted the first lecture as part of its 2013-2014 Embassy Lecture Series. The lecture “The Siege of Constantinople: Folk Memory, History and Scholarship” was given by Prof. Marios Philippides, of University of Massachusetts Amherst. The series will continue to feature leading scholars on Turkey. All lectures will be held at the Turkish Embassy in Washington DC. For upcoming lecture topics and dates, please click here. AFOT is a multi-year recipient of TCA grants that support the organization’s institutional growth and speaker program.