"The TEPAV USA Center" Opened The Center was opened with a ceremony attended by TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu and the US Ambassador to Turkey Francis Ricciardone.

ANKARA – “The TEPAV USA Center” aiming to shed light on Turkey-US relations via regular updates, commentaries and meetings was opened on November 28, 2011, Monday. The Center was opened after a ceremony attended by M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, TOBB President and Francis Ricciardone, US Ambassador to Turkey.

Delivering opening remarks, TEPAV Director Güven Sak said, “Still, we do not feel ourselves as a part of the world. We are not very much interested in other countries. Now, in TEPAV, we want to start to look at the world with that view, and we wanted to start with the USA.”

Stressing that to understand the globalization process, first it was needed to understand what was going on in Washington, he stated that the Center will provide a healthy and robust information flow in Turkey towards the US. He added that the activities the Center will carry out will examine how decisions are made in the US and fill the gap in compiling relevant data.

Talking about joint activities TEPAV has been carrying out with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) for a long time, he said that this cooperation with the Washington-based think-tank will be extended via the USA Center.

TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu said that the idea to found TEPAV dated back to 2003 during a visit to USA by Bülent Ecevit where first heard of CSIS and the concept of ‘think-tank.’ He said, “In 2004, with that inspiration we established TEPAV, the first and the only think-tank of Turkey. It is very important for me to give an address here during the opening of the TEPAV USA Center.” He stressed that the Center will help Turkish people to monitor the developments in the US.

Stating that opinion leaders in the US and in Turkey did not know much about each other causing a gap of information, he said that with the center the number of publications in Turkish on the US politics and policymaking processes. He added, “The Center will help Turkish people to monitor US more easily.”

Stressing that despite certain fluctuations, there had always been stable and smooth relations between Turkey and the US in politics and military, he maintained that for the last 60 years, activities in the third pillar, that is, the economy had not been developed much and that the importance of economic relations diminished with the integration of Turkey into the global economy. In 2000, the share of US in Turkey’s total exports had been 10 percent with US$ 3 billion of exports. Today, however, the share of US was only US$ 4 million against total exports of more than US$ 130 million. Emphasizing the low level of foreign direct investment from the US to Turkey, he added, “The key to the US market is joining Turkish and American entrepreneurs together, learning better about business techniques in the US and to closely follow the political processes in the US.”

US Ambassador: “The Center will improve the quality and the productivity of Turkish-American communications”

US Ambassador to Turkey Francis Ricciardone stated that the TEPAV USA Center will improve the quality and the productivity of the Turkish-American communications and will contribute to Turkish democracy. He added that such centers were better tools to inform the executive and legislative authorities.

He said he expected that economic relations between Turkey and the USA will intensify in the period ahead. Recalling that the second “Global Entrepreneurship Summit”, the first of which was hosted in Washington by President Obama, will this time be hosted in Istanbul by Prime Minister Erdoğan, he informed the audience about the programs to be addressed in the Summit to be held between December 6 and 9 in Istanbul, including “GEP Turkey” partnered and sponsored by TEPAV.

Maintaining that Turkey made significant progress in terms of democracy, Ricciardone said:

“We should all continue to make effort to strengthen democracy. We believe that it is critical that in all democracies, every thought and opinion, and especially opinions which do not represent the majority should be voiced without any fear of facing trials or sanctions. As Prime Minister Erdoğan said, ‘Democracy cannot thrive in a country where there is no freedom of speech.’ We completely agree with each other on that.”

The first meeting of the Center to address Obama’s foreign policy

Following the opening remarks, TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, US Ambassador to Turkey Francis J. Ricciardone, TEPAV Director Güven Sak, Former Minister Yaşar Yakış, and CSIS Turkey Project Director Bülent Alirıza, PhD opened the Center. The first meeting of the Center will be held on November 29, 2011 Tuesday with the theme, “The Obama Era in US Foreign Policy.”