Turkish Daily News: "Lincoln McCurdy - Fostering Turkish-American ties"

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Lincoln McCurdy has been involved with Turkey since the late 1970s when he was at the US Consulate General in Istanbul. Today he is president of the Washington DC-based Turkish Coalition of America

GÜL DEMİR and NIKI GAMM
ISTANBUL – Turkish Daily News

Some people who work in Turkey for the U.S. government fall in love with the country but most, however, are unwilling to risk their future by staying. Lincoln McCurdy is not one of them. He has been involved in U.S.-Turkish relations since the late 1970s. He told the Turkish Daily News, "I had served as the commercial officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Istanbul in the early 1980s, and when my assignment came to an end I resigned from government service to work in Turkey as a consultant for a major American bank."

"When I returned to the US I was involved in establishing the American Turkish Council (ATC), a trade association that promoted commercial, defense and cultural relations between the United States and Turkey. I served as its first executive director and later as president. After leaving ATC, I was the senior advisor for the Turkish American Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TACCI) in New York for two years."

"In 2006, I worked with several concerned Turkish Americans in exploring ways on how to encourage more Turkish Americans to become involved in the U.S. political system and to highlight the achievements of Turkish Americans. Consequently, due to the complexities of U.S. law, two new Turkish American organizations emerged in February 2007."

The Turkish Coalition of America (TCA), for which McCurdy serves as president, was established as a charitable U.S. organization for the purpose of fostering a better understanding of the Turkish American community through public education. It is supported entirely by private donations with offices in Boston, Massachusetts, and Washington, DC.


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