Yuksel Oktay Shares His Thoughts on Republic Day in Seattle

Time in Seattle, TACAWA and the Turkish Republic Day Celebrations

Seattle is the largest city and business center in the state of Washington in Northwest with a central population of around 600,00 and metro population of close to 4 million, putting it among the top 10 cities in the US. A few years back, Seattle was chosen as the most livable city in America, where the nature and the city come together, as a slogan states on the Seattle magazine. One of the best free attractions is the Olympic Sculpture Park and features sculptures from artists such as Richard Serra, Alexander Calder, Louise Bourgeois and others. Hopefully, in 2011 a sculpture of Turkey's most famous sculptor Tankut Oktem will be displayed also as a follow up last year's exhibition of sculptures of Nadia Arditti by the Moonlight exhibitions.

On October 30, Saturday, Turks, Turkish-Americans and Friends of Turks gathered at
the Kane Hall of Washington University to celebrate the 87th anniversary of the
Turkish Republic. The event was sponsored by the Turkish-American Association of
Washington (TACAWA) in association with the Honorary Consul General of Turkey in
Seattle, John Ufuk Gokcen.

As the guests arrived, a group of four musicians who call themselves "Sehr-i
Seattle", played beautiful songs. There were several youngsters in the hall, with one
of them, a 4 year old girl, performing an impromptu dance. On the large screen behind the group, beautiful scenes from Turkey were shown. Then everyone served themselves excellent Turkish food which included stuffed grape leaves, saksuka, kofte, baklava and un helvasi. One of the tables had a series of bottles of olive oil, courtesy of The Olive & Grape Shop in Seattle and Taylieli Oil.

Among the guests were State Senators, Congressional representatives, including Linda
Danforth, District Director for Congressman Adam Smith's office, and consular
guests. The Director of Chinese Development Office in Seattle talked with one of the
Turkish guest who had spent over 10 years in Taiwan. There were many engineers
working at Boeing, Microsoft, lawyers from Starbucks and professors from the
University of Washington.

Levent Besik, the President of TACAWA, made the opening speech followed by the
Consul General Gokcen's remarks about Turkey. Proclamation of the Turkish Republic
Day was made by Merve Aktas, a TACAWA Board member and the Keynote Speech was presented by Senator Kastama. According to Ufuk Gokcen, Senator Kastama keeps a small bust of Ataturk which he looks at when he ponders how to solve some of the problems facing the people of Washington, believing that he can use his tactics that never die.

Again according to Ufuk Gokcen, annual awards were presented in two categories: Friend of Turkiye award went to Antonio Sanchez, Director of International Relations, Lt Governor's Office and the "Distinguished Community Service Award" to Sevgi Baran, ATAA Regional VP of Northwest Region.

I happened to be in Seattle to visit my son's family and was invited to the reception by the President of TACAWA. I enjoyed the program, the food and especially meeting new friends at the reception. Many people spoke fondly of their visit to the lands of wonder and culture and Istanbul, the 2010 Culture Capital of Europe.

Taking advantage of a visit to the University of Washington, I toured the libraries. It was not surprising to see that Stephen Kinzer's latest book, "RESET" was among the many books on Turkey...

Congratulations to the members of TACAWA for an excellent event which is staged in
many cities across America to show the experience the cuulture of Turkey and also to reinforce the bonds between the people of the United States and Turkiye. On the flight back to Istanbul, I sat next to a young Turkish lady whose grandparents were form Bosnia Harzegovia and who was returning to Turkey after spending two years in California, told me that they also had a reception at Newport Beach, but she did not enjoy it. She complained about the polarisation which has started to take roots even in California and she said she did not want to continue her life in America even though she was offered a job as a Public Relations Manager at a hotel. Several newspapers in Turkey also reported that the celbrations for the Republic Day was not like what they were used to be.. No wonder why the main opposition party members and the military did not attend the reception held at the Presidential Mansion. How sad.

Yuksel Oktay