Contact - TURKISH CANADIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Turkish Canadian Chamber of Commerce
595 Burrard, Box 48734
Vancouver, BC V7X 1A6

Tel: 604-687-7010

Email: admin@turkishcanadian.org

AKIN KÖSETORUNU

Coordinator for Turkey

S.G. Ileman, President, is pleased to announce that Akin K. Kosetorunu has been appointed Coordinator for Turkey of the Turkish Canadian Chamber of Commerce. Formerly a Trade Commissioner for Canada in Ankara, and more recently in Istanbul, Kosetorunu brings to this position over 30 years of experience in Canada’s public service making business connections between the two countries. A graduate of the elite Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Kosetorunu has also held teaching positions at Turkish universities. Having lectured across Canada on business opportunities between Canada and Turkey, he’s a familiar figure in Western Canada’s energy and mining sectors. He lives in Ankara. With its in-depth business experience spanning two continents Turkish Canadian Chamber of Commerce offers excellent consulting, research and support services to businesses interested in expanding into the Turkish market.

A modern telecommunication and transportation network.
17th largest and 4th fastest growing economy in the world.
4th biggest donor country in the world with respect to its GNP.
Donor of $3.5 billion in economic and technical assistance including credits and $500 million in humanitarian aid to several countries. In Russia alone, the investments of Turkish private entreprises amount to $10 billion.
With an average annual growth rate of 5%, the fastest growing country on the Mediterranean.
Exports to 155 countries, ranging from cable for the Channel Tunnel to cars to China.
Europe's largest supplier of textiles and apparel.
General Dynamics' only F-16 fighter plane factory outside the US is located in Turkey.
A regional center for international companies such as Coca-Cola, Chase Manhattan, Philips and Siemens.

Turkish Republic was founded in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk that led a War of Independence after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Originally, Turks were a Central Asian people related to Mongolians. Modern Turkey is a melting pot of immigrants from Europe and Asia and the indigenous peoples of Anatolia, also known as Asia Minor.

More than 50-percent of Turkey's population is under 30 years old.

Turkey is a parliamentary democracy.

Turkish is a Turanic language related to Finnish and Hungarian.

Contrary to popular belief, Turkish language has no relation to Arabic although a big part of the vocabulary has Arabic and Persian words or derivatives. The language was written in Arabic script until Ataturk adopted the Latin alphabet. Modern Turkish alphabet is pretty much the same as the English alphabet except that it has no x or w, and some letters are similar to the German umlaut. Like German Turkish is a phonetic language, meaning that once you've mastered the sounds of the alphabet, you'll know how to pronounce Turkish. English speakers have difficulty learning some of the letters, though, like the French "eu" and the German umlaut "u."