The Exchanges

Q and trying to not only make America better, but see how you can help your home country still. And that's really great. And I really appreciate that. But I want to take it back a little bit further and try to understand what interested you in coming to the U S in the first place. And when did you come and what made you want to stay all this time?

A When I first came, I had zero intention staying here beyond my education. So I came to the United States, uh, as part of my second year on my graduate program, graduate school, Johns Hopkins university school of advanced international studies. So if you get into the master's program at size, you do your first year. In Bologna, Italy. And the second year you come to Washington, D.C., United States. And my goal was basically, okay, I do one year in Europe, get European experience, do my second year in the U.S., get American experience. In total, I get the transatlantic exposure, you know, learning about the European-American relationship, transatlantic security cooperation. But, um, after my second year, It made sense to spend some time in the U.S. learning more about private sector, how Washington and New York operate. So I had decided to stay a few years in the United States after I finished my master's program at Johns Hopkins. Staying here, I got a job at the American Turkish Council, which still connected me to Turkey. That was great working with American Private sector doing business in Turkey and the region, but yeah, I had zero intention staying longer, but I think what happened to the first job I got, and then I got married, I had kids. Uh, so all this, uh, life events make me stay here. And now I'm here. I mean, I feel that I'm American Turkish and also a global citizen…

AI assessment note: “I came to the United States, uh, as part of my second year”

Q Yeah, it's a very interesting point. So I'm curious to know, when did you become interested in international relations, politics, and cross-cultural communications?

A Look, I remember myself being six years old and buying European newspapers in Istanbul and trying to read it without even knowing what it says. I was always interested in international affairs. I was always interested in other cultures, understanding what they like, what they eat, what they consume. Growing up in Istanbul also a great experience because Istanbul is very cosmopolitan city. I had neighbors from different parts of the world and different religions, different cultures. So unlike many other Middle Eastern or European states, it's like, Istanbul was kind of a microcosm of the world when I was growing up. So I decided to study international relations. You know, in Turkey, we have this centralized national examination. So you basically choose what you're interested in, then you take the exam, and then the system matches you with the highest program you match. So you don't know if you're going to be a medical doctor Or engineer or, uh, or computer scientists until you have your results coming. So like, it's funny. Uh, of course you can change certain things after you get it, but it's not that easy. So I got into the business, but then I added international relations as my second major. And I enjoyed international relations because international relations is such a multidisciplinary formation. Basically you learn about history, you learn about economics, you learn about …

AI assessment note: “I remember myself being six years old and buying European newspapers in Istanbul”