Montgomery (February 23, 2012) – The 2nd Annual Turkish American Day at the Alabama Capitol took place at the Alabama State Capitol Building on Thursday, February 23rd 2012 from 10:00 a.m. through 4:00 p.m. This unique program – free and open to the public – introduced Alabama Senators, Representatives, staff and the community to Turkish culture through fabulous food, fun, Turkish Music performance and cultural exhibitions.
Before the Annual Turkish American Day program started, Governor Robert Bentley met with a delegation including group of Governors from Turkey and stressed the importance of the relationship between Turkey and the State of Alabama.
The main focus of this event was to highlight the current status of the relations between Turkey and the State of Alabama in the areas of business, cultural and education and the efforts to improve these relations. There are ties between local universities in Alabama and various universities in Turkey. UAB, for instance, has tens of Turkish students and faculty, so have Auburn University, University of Alabama and so forth. This 2rd Annual Turkish American Day at the Alabama Capitol thus intended to build upon these pre-existing partnerships and collaborations, augment them, and create more fruitful and mutually beneficial relationships between Turkey and the state of Alabama.
Couple hundreds of people attended the 2012 Annual Turkish American Day at the Alabama Capitol! Cultural tables provided information about the country of Turkey and the Turkish-American community in the region while an exhibit of past years’ winning Global Connections Art & Essay Contest student submissions were on display. In addition, a variety of free Turkish cuisine – one of the five world-famous cuisines – was offered to all attendees. Music in the form of multiple musical performances played on the native Turkish instrument called a “qanun” throughout the day further shared old traditions with new friends while they mingled over sumptuous food and soaked in Turkish culture.
