Turkish Day Parade on Madison Avenue in NYC

The NYC Turkish Day Parade will be on Saturday, May 28th, 2011. The parade will start on 51st Street at 11:00 am and follow Madison Avenue down to 47th Street, ending in the Dag Hammarskjold Park near the Turkish Consulate. A stage will be set up in the First Avenue side of the Dag Hammarskjold Park, where there will be speeches and singers from Turkey. There will also be food vendors selling Turkish food. This year, Turkish singers Ferhat Gocer and Linet will be coming from Turkey for the festivities and will be the heavyweights of the festival. In last year’s Turkish post-parade festival, the Turkish pop singer Kenan Dogulu, the Turkish national soccer team and the Ottoman military band (Mehter Takimi) were the special guests from Turkey. The Annual Turkish Day Parade is the largest Turkish American event in North America and has been organized in NY by the FTAA, the Federation of Turkish American Associations, since 1981.

As usual, there will be the Turkish Day Ball the night before the parade and this year’s ball will be held at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel on Friday, May 27th. Singers Ferhat Gocer and Linet will be taking stage as special guests at this year’s ball.

NJ Turkish Day Parade And Festival

As part of the Turkish festivities in May, there will also be the Turkish American Day Parade and Festival in Clifton and Paterson, New Jersey on Saturday, May 14th. The parade will start at noon from Madison Avenue in Paterson and follow the Main Street ending in Clifton Park in Clifton. The post-parade NJ Turkish festival in Clifton Park will feature vendors selling Turkish food and other products and there will be surprise singers, prizes and a raffle.

Additionally, there will be Turkish flag raising ceremonies in front of Paterson City Hall and Clifton City Hall at 10:00 am and 12:00 noon respectively on Thursday, May 12th, and the Balo, the pre-parade ball, in Victor Chateau at 7:30 pm on Friday, May 13th.

Turkish music in New York Central Park

Turkish music will be showcased in New York third year in a row on Friday, June 17. The concert will be held in Central Park SummerStage and this time, unlike the first two concerts in 2009 and 2010, it will be an evening concert starting at 6:00 pm and ending at 10:00pm. The admission will be free and music fans are advised to arrive early, as crowds are expected.

Turkish music: From Istanbul to New York

This year’s Istanbulive concert will feature the renowned Turkish singer Zulfu Livaneli and the Turkish alternative rock band maNga from Istanbul, joined by New York’s own NY Gypsy All Stars that recently returned from a very successful tour in Turkey. Zulfu Livaneli has been singing traditional Turkish folk rhythms for four decades and is also a political figure in Turkey. This will be maNga’s first New York appearance, although the Turkish band has loyal fans in both Turkey and all across Europe. 2009 and 2010 marked two consecutive successful years for maNga’s music career and the group extended its fan base outside of Turkey with the Best European Act Award by MTV Europe in 2009 and the impressive second place ranking at the prestigious Eurovision Song Contest in 2010. maNga successfully blends Anatolian melodies with rock and electronic music.

Serdar Ilhan and Mehmet Dede, the two founders and producers of Istanbulive concert series, showcased Turkish music in New York very successfully in 2009 and 2010 and approximately 12,000 New Yorkers combined attended the first two concerts. The first Istanbulive concert in 2009 featured the all time favorite Turkish band Mazhar Fuat Ozkan and the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest winner Sertab Erener, and over 6,000 music fans stayed till the very end of the hours long concert despite the pouring rain. The following year, Istanbulive 2 featured the Turkish pop singer Kenan Dogulu and the Turkish rock band Duman from Istanbul. The success of the first two concerts promises Istanbulive 3 to be a good showcase of Turkish music and culture in NY this year as well.

Turkish economy grew a staggering 8.9 per cent in 2010

Turkish economy grew 8.9 per cent in 2010 according to TurkStat, Turkey’s Statistics Institute. The above expectations high growth rate of 9.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2010 pushed the annual rate above expectations for 2010. Turkish government’s official forecast of 2010 growth rate was 6.8 per cent. This 8.9 per cent growth rate not only made Turkey the fastest growing economy in Europe in 2010, but it also put the country at the top third place in the world after China and Singapore.

The first signals of recovery in Turkish economy came in the fourth quarter of 2009 with a 6.0 per cent growth rate, after four consecutive quarters of contraction that caused the economy to shrink 4.8 per cent in 2009. Then in 2010, Turkey grew 11.9 per cent in the first quarter, 10.3 per cent in the second quarter, 5.2 per cent in the third quarter and 9.2 per cent in the fourth quarter that brought the growth rate of Turkish economy to a record high 8.9 per cent on annual basis. As a result, Turkey’s GDP rose to USD 736 billion and national income per capita reached USD 10,079. In 2010, the construction industry was the fastest growing sector with 17.1 per cent.

On the negative side, strong Turkish lira and the high economic growth rates in recent years resulted in a record high current account deficit that reached an alarming level of 6.5 per cent of the GDP. As a response, the Turkish Central Bank cut rates both in December and January to stop inflows of hot money from abroad and took additional measures to increase the bank reserve requirement ratios, taking effect as of 4th of February 2011, to cool the economy. “We will be reviewing the progress week by week and additional steps may be taken to cool the economy” said Turkish Economy Minister Ali Babacan in a news conference this week.

Although the domestic demand remained strong in the first quarter of 2011, Central Bank’s measures are expected to take effect starting from the second quarter of this year. Consequently, Turkey’s fast growth in 2010 is expected to slow down in 2011 with forecasts varying between 5 and 6 per cent.

Turkey’s current account deficit went as high as 11.9 per cent of its GDP during the 2001 crisis and gradually went down to 0.6 per cent in 2006. Last year’s deficit was 4.0 percent of the GDP, down from 5.5 per cent in 2009. Turkish government’s goal is to keep the current account deficit below the Maastricht criteria of 3.0 per cent in the next three years: 2.8 per cent in 2011, 2.4 per cent in 2012 and 1.6 per cent in 2013.

Turkish economy has become more stable in the last decade with its public debt to its GDP ratio declining to 42.3 per cent in 2010, down from 45.5 per cent in 2009. Turkey’s public debt to GDP ratio has shown a clear falling trend since the record high 73.7 percent in 2002, with forecasts of 40.6 per cent in 2011, 38.8 per cent in 2012 and 36.8 per cent in 2013. The Maastricht criteria for euro zone countries set the upper limit of its member countries’ public debt as 60 per cent of their respective GDPs.

A new record for Turkish exports

Turkish exports have continued to be one of the major engines of the Turkish economy in maintaining its strong growth. According to Turkish Exporters Assembly’s data, March marked a new record for the exports, reaching USD 11.7 billion with a 22.81 per cent jump from March of last year. This is not only the highest of the last 32 months, but also the highest March export figure in Turkish Republic’s history. In the first quarter, Turkish exports rose to USD 31.4 billion, a 20.74 per cent increase from the same period of last year, and the top three leading sectors were automotive, textile and steel.

In the first quarter of 2011, Turkey’s exports to many countries rose in double digits: Russia (53 per cent), India (52 per cent), Holland (40 per cent), Ukraine (40 per cent), Germany (28 per cent), Brazil (28 per cent), Italy (24 per cent), England (22 per cent), Spain (16 per cent) and Romania (13 per cent).

During the same period, Turkish exports to the Middle East rose by 33 per cent, despite sharp declines to some markets, including Libya (43 per cent), Egypt (24 per cent), Yemen (24 per cent) and Tunus (20 per cent), due to the political instability in these countries. In the first quarter, the top three growing Middle Eastern markets for Turkish exports were the United Arab Emirates (72 per cent), Iran (48 per cent) and Iraq (40 per cent). After this 40 per cent increase, Iraq has become the top fourth export market for Turkey. Turkish exports to Iraq have shown a steep upward trend in the last eight years, from no exports in 2002 to USD 6 billion in 2010.

According to a survey conducted by the Turkish Undersecretariat of Foreign Trade (DTM) among 500 leading Turkish export and import companies, optimism has remained high for the second quarter of 2011 as well. Respondent companies are expecting a 20 per cent increase in Turkey’s exports in the second quarter of this year. In order to keep this upward trend and compensate the losses in the Middle East, Turkish companies are targeting new markets, including India, China and sub-Saharan African countries. In addition, the abolition of visas between Russia and Turkey offers significant opportunities for Turkish exporters. According to a survey by the Turkish Exporters Assembly, Turkey’s leading 24 companies surveyed expressed Russia as their top target market.

Record low inflation

The newly released March data showed that despite the 0.42 per cent rise in Turkish Consumer Price Index (CPI), the year-on-year inflation dropped down to 3.99 per cent, the lowest rate in the last 42 years of the Republic of Turkey. On the other hand, Turkey’s Producer Price Index (PPI) rose 1.22 per cent in March to 10.08 per cent on year-on-year basis. This high margin between CPI and PPI raises the fears that the drop in the Consumer Price Index may be temporary. The results of a survey done by Turkish Central Bank in March showed that inflation may rise to 6.8 per cent in the next 12 months.

Turkish unemployment rate on the decline

Another good news for the Turkish economy came from the employment rate in 2011. Turkish unemployment rate declined from 14.5 per cent to 11.9 per cent in January on a year-on-year basis. Turkey has a very young population and the unemployment rate is higher among the younger workforce in the country. Consequently, the Turkish economy needs to achieve sustainable growth even to prevent Turkey’s current three million unemployment number from growing.

Nevruz Show in the Town Hall

Two Nevruz shows were performed in New York this week. The first performance was held at the General Assembly Hall in the United Nations Headquarters at 6:00 pm on Thursday, March 24th. There was a press conference before the show at the same location and the show was followed by a reception at the Turkish Mission (Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations). The second performance at the Town Hall on Saturday night was attended by fewer dance troupes as the stage wasn’t big enough to accommodate all the dancers. Over 150 musicians and dancers represented 11 countries and regions, including Turkey, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Crimea (Ukraine), Kyrgyzstan, Bulgaria, Gagauzia (Republic of Moldova) and several republics from the Russian Federation, in their colorful costumes.

Nevruz is celebrated as a festival in many Turkish speaking nations all across Eurasia as the beginning of the spring. It is a major public holiday in several countries and a celebration of life, renewal and hope. Nevruz has a history of more than 5,000 years and has an important influence in Turkish music and literature. Also, the Turks all around Eurasia share the tradition of many different meals special to Nevruz. The General Assembly of the United Nations declared March 21st as the International Day of Nevruz and included Nevruz into the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List.

This New York debut of the two Nevruz performances was presented by Turksoy, the International Organization of Turkic Culture. Turksoy, based in Turkey, is an international organization aiming to strengthen relations  among Turkish speaking nations, and developing the common culture, literature, history, arts, customs and traditions in the Turkic World. Turksoy was founded in 1993 by Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Then, the Republics of Altai, Tatarstan, Sakha-Yakutia, Khakassia, Bashkortostan and Tyva from the Russian Federation, Gagauzia from Moldova, and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus joined the organization as observer member states.

Turkish Airlines: Turkey's Global Icon

Turkish Airlines (Türk Hava Yolları), Turkey’s national air carrier, was founded with only five airplanes in 1933. The last 10 years has marked a turning point in the company’s 78 year old history with impressive profitability, annual growth rates and service quality, transforming it into a successful global Turkish icon.

Today, Turkish Airlines has the youngest fleet of Europe with a total of 155 cargo and passenger planes, flying to 150 destinations around the world and qualifying it as the Europe’s third largest airline carrier. It carries about 25 million passengers per year. In 2011, Turkish Airlines is planning to start flying to 11 new international destinations as part of its successful growth policy. Some of these new destinations include, Valencia and Malaga in Spain, Toulouse in France, Washington DC and Los Angeles in the U.S. and Shiraz in Iran. Turkish Airlines also doubled the number of its flights between Istanbul and New York and is now flying twice a day between these two cities.

In addition to adding new routes, Turkish airlines is also opening new offices around the world, as part of its global expansion policy, in an attempt to directly reach its local markets instead of working with sales agencies. The carrier recently opened a new office in Empire State Building in New York and will soon be opening another new office in India.

The last two years have been incredibly successful for Turkey’s national flag carrier. In both 2009 and 2010, Turkish Airlines was awarded as Southern Europe’s best airline carrier. In addition, Turkish Airlines was given the third best airline of Europe award, as well as the prestigious four star status in all supervision categories. The company announced 389 million Euro profit in 2009, the third highest among national carriers globally in that year. According to its Chairman Hamdi Topcu, Turkish Airlines aims to reach a revenue of USD 8 billion and to own 165 planes by the end of 2011, a target originally set for 2015. Because of the addition of new destinations, the company decided to raise its capacity over its initial projections.

Turkish Airlines’ new global marketing campaign

During this period, Turkish Airlines launched a new worldwide advertising campaign,signing long term contracts with well-known international superstars, naming them as the company’s “Global Ambassadors” and using them in worldwide public relations activities and promotional films to promote the company, Turkey and Turkish culture.

Kobe Bryant Turkey Ad

In 2010, Caroline Wozniacki, the world’s number one ranked tennis player, signed a three year contract with Turkey’s national airline carrier, naming her the face of Turkish Airlines’ Business Class. This deal was followed by a two year contract with Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant. The famous NBA superstar will serve as the face and image of Turkish Airlines and the Republic of Turkey in international commercials that will be aired in more than 80 countries. This deal with Bryant came at the same time with the announcement of the new direct flights between Los Angeles and Istanbul by Turkish Airlines.

Turkish Airlines signed partnership contracts with famous European soccer clubs Barcelona and Manchester United, as well as with ULEB, the consortium of Europe’s top professional basketball leagues from 18 countries. To become the  official sponsor of Barcelona and Manchester United, the Turkish air carrier paid USD 16 million and bought the rights to use both teams’ names and players in its commercial and public relations campaigns, and to put its advertisements in both teams’ home fields. Turkish Airlines will also be flying both teams and their equipment. On the other hand, ULEB’s Euroleague was named as Turkish Airlines Euroleague, as part of this €15 million name sponsorship and strategic deal with ULEB. In addition to all this, Turkish Airlines is also currently the official sponsor of the Turkish National Soccer Team and the Greek basketball team Maroussi BC. The sponsorship agreement with Maroussi BC was signed in March and will be valid for one and a half years. It will enable Turkish Airlines to add its logo in Maroussi’s jerseys and to the sidelines of its home field.

Turkish President Abdulah Gul is in New York

Turkish President Abdullah Gul arrived in New York yesterday to attend the 65th session of the General Assembly at the United Nations between September 20-22. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and the Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan also came on the same plane yesterday for the UN General Assembly that will be attended by leaders from 150 countries around the world. This year’s General Assembly is particularly important for Turkey, as it just took over the rotating presidency of he United Nations Security Council and will be hosting conferences on the sidelines of the General Assembly.

Today President Gul met with UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon on the first day of his New York visit. Aside from Jose Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission, and Amr Musa,the Secretary General of the Arab League, the Turkish president is expected to meet with 12 head of states on the sidelines of the General Assembly. There is no meeting planned at the moment with U.S. President Barack Obama, although President Gul will be attending the dinner hosted by President Obama at the American Museum of Natural History on September 23rd.

Turkish President Gul will also speak at the Council on Foreign Relations and Columbia University before flying to Boston on September 24. He will return to Turkey on September 25 after his one day visit in Boston.

Turkey vs USA World Championship Basketball Final Game in Istanbul

Turkey and USA played the final at the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Istanbul today and the U.S. team captured the gold medal by defeating the host team 81-64. After this result, Turkey finished with a silver in its home field in front of over 15,000 passionate Turkish fans. The Turkish team started the year with a FIBA ranking of 18th, but has showed an outstanding performance in the World Championship. Today’s game with Team USA was Turkey’s first loss ever in the tournament after eight games. Before playing with the U.S. team for the gold medal, Turks have defeated Ivory Coast, Russia, Greece, Puerto Rico, China, France, Slovenia and Serbia.

The Turkish team seemed capable of sticking around with the U.S. team, however Kevin Durant was unstoppable in the U.S. team, torching Turkey for 28 points and he is named tournament MVP at the closing ceremony after the game. In Turkey, Hidayet Turkoglu, the only Turkish player, who reached double digits, went for a team-high 16 points on 5-for-8 shooting.

The Turkish crowd saluted both the Turkish and the U.S. teams after the game.

Binbir Gece has been very successful in Greece

Starting with the big success of Foreign Groom (Yabanci Damat) a few years ago, Turkish soap operas have been getting increasingly more popular in Greece. Following the Foreign Groom, Binbir Gece (1001 Nights) was shown from October 2009 on and broke the record by drawing 1.1 million Greek viewers each day. Even on the first day of the World Cup, Binbir Gece captured 30.5 percent of viewers, overshadowing the opening game between France and Uruguay – the first time that a soap opera ever beat the ratings of a soccer match in Greece.  In the winter season, additional Turkish soap operas, Forbidden Love (Ask-i Memnu) and Silver (Gumus), will start broadcasting on Greek channels.

The strong interest of Greek viewers in Turkish soap operas is seen as the indication of strong similarity between Greek and Turkish cultures by many. The rapprochement that started between Greece and Turkey in 1999 turned the two countries once enemies into strategic partners. During Turkish Prime Minister’s last visit, Turkey and Greece had a joint cabinet meeting and formed a High Level Cooperation Council between the two countries.

Turkish soap operas have been enjoying great popularity all throughout the Balkans, including but not limited to Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania and Bosnia Herzegovina. Lately, some of these series have also started being shown in some Central European countries such as Slovakia and the Czech Republic. This overwhelming interest inevitably increases the interest for Turkey and the Turkish language in the region.

Summerstage in Central Park

The countdown has started for this weekend’s Turkish music concert at Central Park Summerstage. The concert, which the Turkish American community has been looking forward to after last year’s successful first concert, will start at 3:00 pm on Saturday, July 3rd and will feature some famous singers and bands from Turkey, including Kenan Dogulu, Duman, Ilhan Ersahin and Sukriye Tutkun. Last year’s concert was a huge success with close to 7,000 Turkish music fans and most people sang with Mazhar Fuat Ozkan for hours despite the pouring rain.

Istanbulive II, the official name of this year’s concert organization, presented by Serdar Ilhan and Mehmet Dede, is intended to bring the sounds and colors of Istanbul, the 2010 European Capital of Culture, and Turkey to New York. Please check out the below given website for more information on this Turkish cultural event:

http://www.istanbulive.org/2010/

Even though the percentage of bilateral trade volume with the Eurozone countries went down to 43% from over 50% a while ago, the Turkish economy is still heavily influenced by what happens in the Eurozone. The AKP government’s attempts to reach out to Russia, currently Turkey’s largest trading partner, the Middle East and Africa are paying back in terms of sharply higher trade and greater investment, and Turkey is achieving increasingly more economic integration with its newly found partners every day. Hence, Turkish economy’s vulnerability to the bumps in the Eurozone is decreasing and the country is becoming more of a global player, thanks to its strengthening economy. What is really helping this picture are the solid and liquid state of the Turkish banking system and the low debt ratio of the public sector: The Turkish public sector debt constitutes 49% of Turkey’s GDP, whereas this number reaches an average of 84% in the Eurozone countries. As a reflection of this strong recovery, the Turkish lira is attracting bullish recommendations against the dollar in 2010, with forecasts ranging between 6% to 12%. The Turkish currency has gained 2.4 % last month, the best performance among 26 emerging market currencies.

As a result, IMF raised its forecast for 2010 Turkish economic growth from 3.7% in October to 5.2% in April. Similarly, Goldman Sachs revised its growth forecast for 2010 from 5.5% to 7.0%.