Republic of Turkey Ambassador to the United States, H.E. Ambassador Namik Tan and his wife, Fugen Tan, graciously opened their beautiful home to us and our guests to kick off the conference.
Cool drinks, delicious Turkish food, and an atmosphere of informal conversation and networking for conference participants got the conference off on the right note.
Welcoming Remarks
The conference officially kicked off early Monday morning with welcoming remarks by ATC Chairman Amb. Richard Armitage, TAIK Chairman Haluk Dinçer and TOBB & DEIK President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu
Chairman Swanson has spent his entire professional career with Raytheon, rising through the ranks with a rich and steady diet of ever greater management responsibility. He spoke of Raytheon’s readiness and its corporate investment in defense cooperation with Turkey’s defense companies.
Monday Luncheon Keynote
Hüsnü Özyeğin, Founder and Chairman of the FIBA Group, was the first keynote speaker.
Mr. Özyeğin received a Distinguished Career Award for in recognition of his long and distinguished career as a successful businessman, entrepreneur, educator and philanthropist and his innovative leadership of Turkey’s retail, financial and education sectors.
Monday Luncheon was sponsored by: Turkish Armed Forces Foundation Part of the TAFF:Aselsan, Havelsan, Roketsan, TAI.
Monday Luncheon Keynote
The Honorable Francis J. Ricciardone, United States Ambassador to Turkey, was the second keynote speaker for the Monday Luncheon. His remarks focused on “View from the Trenches"
Monday Luncheon was sponsored by: Turkish Armed Forces Foundation Part of the TAFF:Aselsan, Havelsan, Roketsan, TAI.
Annual Conference Dinner Keynote
Introduced by Thomas Kennedy, President of Raytheon’s Integrated Defense Systems, H.E. İsmet Yılmaz, Minister of Defense for the Republic of Turkey was the first keynote speaker of the evening.
Annual Conference Dinner was sponsored by: Raytheon
Annual Conference Dinner Keynote
Also introduced by Thomas Kennedy, President of Raytheon’s Integrated Defense Systems, the Honorable Leon Panetta, The U.S. Secretary of Defense followed H.E. Yılmaz.
Both speakers reaffirmed the value of the U.S.-Turkey Strategic partnership, the need to confront urgent threats like terrorism from Al Qaeda and the PKK, and the ways by which defense cooperation can be improved in the future.
Annual Conference Dinner was sponsored by: Raytheon
Conference Program
Please click here to download the final program for the 2012 Conference.
Conference Presentations
Below you can find a PDF copy of the speakers' presentations. Click on the plus (+) sign next to the section title to get the list of presentations.
Keynote speeches and plenary sessions filmed during the conference.
Monday Program
Welcoming Remarks:
Opening Ceremony Keynote:
Monday Luncheon Keynotes:
Monday Dinner Keynotes:
Tuesday Program
Tuesday Plenary Session:
For thirty-one years, the Annual Conference of the American-Turkish Council has convened in Washington in affirmation of the enduring strength and importance of the U.S. - Turkey relationship. High-powered and dynamic speakers, stimulating panel discussions, and numerous networking opportunities were the order of the day for the 2012 Conference. For those unable to attend, this brief recaps the exciting Conference events of June 10 - 13.
With the centrally-located and perfectly-sized Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington, once again the Conference venue, we kicked off on Sunday, June 10 with the ATC and TAIK (Turkish-U.S. Business Council), board meetings, followed by a participant-wide welcoming reception at the Residence of the Turkish Ambassador. His Excellency Ambassador Namik Tan and his lovely wife, Fugen, graciously opened their beautiful home to us and our guests. Cool drinks, delicious Turkish food, and an atmosphere of informal conversation and networking got the conference off on the right note.
The conference officially kicked off early Monday morning with welcoming remarks by ATC Chairman Amb. Richard Armitage, TAIK Chairman Haluk Dinçer and TOBB & DEIK President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, followed by the Keynote Speech of William Swanson, CEO of Raytheon. Chairman Swanson has spent his entire professional career with Raytheon, rising through the ranks with a rich and steady diet of ever greater management responsibility. He spoke of Raytheon’s readiness and its corporate investment in defense cooperation with Turkey’s defense companies.
After the opening session, a “Political Landscape Panel”, moderated once again by Dr. Joshua Walker, Senior Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund, featured official stock-taking of U.S. - Turkish relations by H.E. Ambassador Yaşar Halit Çevik, Deputy Undersecretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Honorable Philip H. Gordon Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, and the irreverent observations of Andrew Finkel, Journalist with Today’s Zaman. The panel shed light to several important issues shaping the bilateral relationship, such as Syria, Iran, Israel, Afghanistan and the Caucasus. Commercial Leadership Awards were also presented at the conclusion of the Opening Plenary to Chobani Global founder and CEO, Hamdi Ulukaya, and AKSA Chairman of the Board, Mehmet Ali Berkman. (In less than five years, Chobani has transformed from an upstate New York start-up company to become America’s Number One yogurt producer; AKSA formed a joint-venture with DOW Chemical Company at the end of 2011 that will make Turkey a global player in the hi-tech production of carbon fibers and the JV of one of the largest investments in Turkey by an American corporation.)
A distinguished feature of ATC Conferences is the working-group session. The two feature sessions Monday morning were the Defense & Security Affairs working group which covered U.S.-Turkish cooperation, and an ISPAT session profiling the “New Turkey.” The Defense and Security Affairs session addressed the foreign policy and national security policy environment of both countries through the presentations by Lt. Gen. M. Emin Alpman of the Turkish General Staff and Joseph McMillan, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. At the end of the session, Havelsan and Lockheed Martin signed a Letter of Intent.
The “New Turkey” panel was moderated by Dr. Kerem Alkin, with the opening remarks from the President of the Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Turkey (ISPAT), Ilker Ayci. Featured panelists who discussed investment opportunities in Turkey were Heinz Haller of Dow Chemical Company, Dr. Cevdet Akcay of Yapi Kredi, and Eugene Willemsen of PepsiCo.
Monday’s lunch was sponsored by the Turkish Armed Forces Foundation, and its General Manager, Lt.Gen (R) Hayrettin Uzun opened it. Hüsnü Özyeğin, Founder and Chairman of the FIBA Group, was the Luncheon Keynote Speaker and The Honorable Francis J. Ricciardone, United States Ambassador to Turkey, provided “View from the Trenches” remarks. The Luncheon concluded with the presentation of the Distinguished Career Award to Mr. Ozyegin..
Monday afternoon working group discussions covered Turkey and the EU, Agribusiness & Food Industries, Defense & Security Affairs and Banking & Finance. The sessions on Defense cooperation included presentations by Murad Bayar, Undersecretary for Defense Industries; Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisitions, Katrina McFarland; Beth M. McCormick, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Defense Trade and Regional Security; and Al Volkman, Director of the International Cooperation Office of the Undersecretary of Defense. The Defense Citation was presented to Steven Delp of BAE Systems, and Special Defense Award to Al Volkman.
The Agribusiness sessions distinguished speakers included Dr. Husnu Tekin, President of the Sugar Authority; Guilio Menato, Agricultural Counselor for the EU Delegation to the US; Ron Lord of USDA; Hamdi Ulukaya of Chobani; David Marberger of Godiva; Hasan Girenes of Yasar Group; and Dr. Ferhat Selli of the Ministry of Agriculture.
The Banking and Finance Panel presented “New Products in Banking and Financing” and featured the Executive Director of JP Morgan-Turkey Koray Arikan; Metin Ar of Garanti Yatirim; and Fernando Jaime of MetLife. Awards were presented to Steven Delp and Al Volkman.
We had a truly special dinner on Monday night as Thomas Kennedy, President of Raytheon’s Integrated Defense Systems introduced two dedicated public servants, H.E. Ismet YIlmaz, the Turkish Minister of Defense and the Honorable Leon Panetta, the U.S. Secretary of Defense. Both speakers reaffirmed the value of the U.S.-Turkey Strategic partnership, the need to confront urgent threats like terrorism from Al Qaeda and the PKK, and the ways by which defense cooperation can be improved in the future. No one could hear the ringing remarks of Secretary Panetta without a feeling of confidence in the durability of the U.S.-Turkey relationship.
Tuesday’s Golden Horn breakfast opened with MetLife Vice President Peter Pastre introducing another distinguished guest and friend of Turkey, Senator John McCain. In typically straightforward remarks, Senator McCain reaffirmed his support for Turkey and left no doubt for the importance he attaches to Turkey’s continuing, critical role in NATO structure. Senator McCain was presented with the Distinguished Leadership Award.
After breakfast was the Energy Plenary Session, moderated by former Ambassador to Turkey, Amb. Mark R. Parris currently a Nonresident Senior Fellow at Brookings Institution. Panelists who engaged in a vigorous give-and-take on Turkey’s energy polcies with Baghdad and the KRG included John Hannah, Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies; The Honorable James F. Jeffrey United States Ambassador to Iraq; Vladimir Socor, Senior Fellow, Jamestown Foundation, and Qubad Talabani the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Representative to the United States. Later in the morning, working group panels discussed Turkey’s relationship with the EU and the Turkish Defense Industry as a Best Value Partner.
The Tuesday luncheon featured the Keynote address of The Honorable Ron Kirk, the United States Trade Representative and the second “View from the Trenches” remarks by Namik Tan, Turkish Ambassador to the United States. A Special Citation was presented to retiring Chairman of the Turkish-American Business Association, Uğur Terzioğlu.
Tuesday afternoon sessions included space cooperation, trade and investment under the umbrella of the Framework for Strategic Economic and Commercial Cooperation (FSECC), an infrastructure roundtable and an education roundtable. The Closing Night Dinner Keynote address was by Dr. Daniel Poneman, the Deputy Secretary of Energy. Deputy Secretary Poneman previously spoke to the Annual Conference in 2009, and his remarks traced to the steady increase in bilateral communications and cooperation on energy matters in the intervening three years.
Wednesday morning gave one last opportunity for the Defense Sector participants to meet at the Defense breakfast while a number of ATC’s Golden Horn members attended the always-useful Interagency briefings at the Department of State.
As in the past, the 2012 Annual Conference was made possible by the financial support of our loyal corporate sponsors; Raytheon, Sikorsky, Pratt & Whitney, Koc Holding, Turkish Airlines, Lockheed Martin, Ford Otosan, AES, DEIK, the Turkish Armed Forces Foundation, Is Yatirim, ISPAT, NUD and Boeing. We thank them for their generosity and commitment to the Turkey-U.S. relationship. Last but not least, we applaud and thank the dedicated volunteers and interns who gave their time and energy and are so important to the success of the conference.