TCF provided a 40,000 USD grant to the Aid Foundation for Elementary Schools - ILKYAR in Turkey, matching a special designated donation to TCF. The recipient of previous TCF grants, ILKYAR was awarded the grant for its 2014 Summer camp for teachers and students at regional boarding schools in Turkey, which will be held at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara in June. Every year, ILKYAR volunteers visit regional boarding schools in rural areas of Turkey, trying to inspire children to finish school and pursue a university education. The organization also helps establish libraries and playrooms in these schools and holds math/science competitions. The 9-day summer camps are designed for competitively selected 8th grade students and teachers teaching at the boarding schools and includes courses in math and science, hands-on research and art projects, as well as tours to important cultural and historical sites in Ankara. Over 1,200 students have thus far participated in the camps; 140 students and 40 teachers have been invited this year.

Ms.Yasemin Karaca, studying Visual Communications Design at Istanbul Bilgi University, received a TCF grant to create her student photographic exhibition. The exhibition will highlight milestones in women’s rights in recent Turkish history and leading women who made significant contributions to modernization and the advancement of women in Turkey. Titled "Ulviye’s Dream-Ulviye’nin Hayali," the project takes its name from Ulviye Mevlan, an Ottoman era women’s rights advocate, who was the editor of one of the first women’s magazines at the time. The exhibition will take place at Bilgi University on June 7.

A TCF grant will underwrite a series of music concerts brought to the United States under the sixth edition of Istanbulive, an annual celebration of Turkish music, produced by Serdar Ilhan and Mehmet Dede. Supported by TCF for multiple years, Istanbulive6 will feature a North America tour by Mercan Dede and Istanbul Tribe. The first concert will take place in Toronto at the Mod Club Theater on June 15, followed by performances in New York City on June at the Global Beat Festival, on June 18 at the Old Town School of Music and on June 21 in Cleveland at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

On May 3rd, the TCF Culinary Arts Center-YESAM hosted a lecture by Prof.Dr.Arif Bilgin of Sakarya University’s History Department who spoke on "17th Century Istanbul Cuisine." Next month, the YESAM Seminar Series will feature Dr.Efdal Sevincli on June 12 with a presentation titled "Karagoz in the Kitchen." Past YESAM seminar videos may be watched online on the TCF Video Gallery.

Meanwhile, Turkish cooking traditions are highlighted every month with the YESAM Recipe of the Month, which features a recipe for Artichokes and Broad Beans poached in Olive Oil for May.

Prof.Dr.Recep Karadag of the TCF Cultural Heritage Preservation and Natural Dyes Laboratory-DATU will chair a session and present on the analysis done by DATU on stone samples excavated in Azerbaijan at the Youth in Cultural Preservation conference in Agsu, Azerbaijan on May 27-31.

Next month, Dr.Karadag  will give a presentation at the 36th International Excavation, Research and Archaeometry Symposium in Gaziantep, Turkey on June 2-6. Dr.Karadag’s presentation will highlight the findings of the DATU analysis done on a textile excavated at the Ayanis Fort in Van, which helped date the textile to the Urartu period.

Emine Torgan, a researcher at DATU, will give a presentation on "Identification by SEM-EDX analyses of ceramics found in the Roma Theatre excavation in Ankara-Turkey" at the 9th International Symposium on the Conservation of Monuments in the Mediterranean Basin on June 3-5 in Ankara, Turkey. Research papers and articles published by the DATU team may be accessed at the DATU website.

In May, three scholars were awarded the TCF Fellowship in Turkish Culture and Art.

Dr. Emrah Sahin, Turkish Studies Coordinator and Lecturer the University of Florida, received a paper publication award for his paper "Sultan’s America: Lessons from Ottoman encounters with the United States" in the Journal of American Studies of Turkey.

Susanne Masters, Ph.D. Candidate in Ethnobiology at the University of Kent, will give a documentary presentation "Collectors and Collected: Edible Orchids in Turkey" at the 14th International Society of Ethnobiology Congress organized by the International Society of Ethnobiology in Lamai Gompa, Bhutan on June 1-7.

Mesut Dinler, Graduate Intern at the Getty Conservation Institute, will present his paper "A Site that has been Rearranged and then Rehabilitated and then Renewed: Major Urban Interventions on Fener and Balat Districts" at the 21st International Seminar on Urban Form - ISUF 2014, which will be held in Port, Portugal on July 3-6.

For detailed eligibility and application information for the TCF Fellowship in Turkish Culture and Art, please visit the TCF website.

Zeynep Dadak (TCF Cultural Exchange Fellow-2014), filmmaker, film critic, and a doctoral candidate at the Cinema Studies Department of New York University, attended the 15th Jeonju International Film Festival in Seoul, Korea with her first feature film "Mavi Dalga / The Blue Wave."

Aylin de Tapia (TCF Academic Fellow-2012-2013) participated in the conference “Immigration and Family in the 19th Century” with her paper “The "Ottoman-style" Family Reunification through the case of immigrants from Cappadocia to Istanbul” at the INALCO in Paris, France.

Assoc. Prof.Dr.Alpaslan Ucar (TCF Academic Fellow-2008-2009) gave three presentations, "Cy Twombly," "Moda & Marka" and "Dus ve Gercek" at Abant Izzet Baysal University in Bolu, Turkey.

Jerome Symons (TCF Cultural Exchange Fellow-2014) held a 3-week workshop on Public Art at the Department of Fine Arts at Mugla Sitki Kocman University in Bodrum, Turkey.

Feraye Alver (TCF Cultural Exchange Fellow-2014) opened her solo exhibition "Agoni" at the Gallery Ilayda in Istanbul, which will run through June 8, 2014.

Assistant Prof.Dr.Suna Cagaptay (TCF Academic Fellow-2008-2009) gave a lecture on "Mesrutiyetin Insasi: Anadolu'da Beylikler Donemi Mimarisi" at Mardin Artuklu University.

Ahmet Yasar (TCF Academic Fellow-2008-2009) participated in the Uluslararasi Osmanli Istanbulu Sempozyumu II / International Conference: Ottoman Istanbul II with his paper "Istanbul Hamamlari: 1731-1766" at Istanbul 29 Mayis University.

This month, the TCF Istanbul office hosted a meeting by the Turkish Women’s International Network and a study tour group of Georgia State University (GSU) students and faculty. The GSU study tour was visiting Istanbul with help from the Turkish Coalition of America Study Tour Grant.