AMBASSADOR'S REMARKS AND PUBLIC EVENTS

Ambassador Ross Wilson Address to the International Conference on Sustainable Development and New Technologies for Agricultural Production in the GAP Region

Harran University, Sanliurfa, Turkey, May 29, 2006

President Demirel; Rector Ugur Buyukburc; Chancellor Ryan and Ambassador  Gosende of the State University of New York; distinguished officials from the Higher Education Council and the ministries of Agriculture, Energy and Natural Resources, Health and from the GAP Regional Development Administration; rectors and academicians; municipality officials; conference participants and guests.

I am very happy to be here in Sanliurfa and deeply honored to share the podium with President Demirel.  I want to thank Ambassador Gosende for inviting me to speak at this event and pestering me until I agreed.  Bob Gosende is a bit of a legend in our Foreign Service for the role he played during very turbulent times as our chief of mission in Somalia.  Bob and I reminisced a couple of months ago about work we did separately – we didn’t know each other at the time – to prevent the closure of his mission.  It was a little strange finally to cross paths 12-13 years later in Ankara.  Thank you for your kindness to my wife, a fellow Foreign Service Officer and colleague in what used to be the US Information Agency.

Six months into my tenure as American ambassador here, a visit to this part of Turkey’s southeast seemed important.  I have learned a lot during the past couple of days in Diyarbakir and Mardin, as well as Sanliurfa, of course.

It is an honor, too, to be here at the Osman Bey Campus of Harran University, one of the world’s first universities.  And I am pleased to represent the United States at the opening of this conference on sustainable development and new technologies for agricultural production in the GAP Region.

Let me say a few words about agriculture.  Turkey finds itself today on the cusp of revolutionary change in the rural life of this country.  Turkey is engaged in talks on its accession to the European Union.  It is also working with the United States and others in the World Trade Organization Doha Round negotiations.  As these efforts go forward, this country can look to the possibility of reaping immense benefits from the opening of markets to goods, services, investment and competition.  This especially includes agriculture, where Turkey possesses some important comparative advantages and faces some important challenges.

The further opening of this country’s agricultural markets will produce some perhaps painful changes.  But trade will also improve living standards and enhance the competitiveness of your producers.  American soybeans, for example, are increasing productivity and profitability for Turkish farmers, and they have created a market that Turkish producers of soybeans are now entering, to the further benefit of profitability in this country’s livestock sector.

In order to take full advantage of the opportunities that will open up in coming decades, Turkey must work on its infrastructure, on education for farmers, on modernizing crop and soil protection and other regulatory regimes, and on orienting what remains of subsistence agriculture to profit making.  Wise government policy making -- including, of course, in social, political and security areas -- will produce immense benefits for a still too impoverished southeast.

The Southeast Development Project is already playing a significant role in southeast Turkey’s transformation.  Looking ahead, government institutions, universities, civil society groups and others will have a big role to play in helping free and independent farmers make the right decisions that will ensure their competitiveness and success.

It is something that has to happen.  Without such adaptation, the rural poor of this country will have even less chance than they have now.  Globalization demands of all of us that we figure out what it takes to compete.  Conferences such as this are important because they bring together people for the exchange of ideas.

International scholarship is important, too.

Since I arrived in Ankara almost exactly six months ago, I have been delighted to learn about the University of New York, or SUNY, program in Turkey.  SUNY is playing a leading role in stimulating educational exchange between our two countries.  It has set the standard for how to organize and implement an effective and successful educational exchange.

The first project in the collaboration between SUNY and Turkey’s Higher Education Council (YOK) is built around a dual diploma program.  When I attended the University of Minnesota thirty years ago, one degree seemed enough.  But in today’s increasingly competitive global economy, two degrees are better, especially when they straddle international boundaries.  Some 1500 Turkish students now participate in the program.  The number will rise to 2200 in August.  The first students to graduate will receive their degrees this summer at the SUNY New Paltz campus.

The SUNY-YOK partnership encompasses universities throughout southeastern Anatolia.  These include Harran, Gaziantep, Ataturk, Kahramanmaras, Cukurova, and Yuzuncu Yil universities, with the support of Ankara University.   The project has a Turkish PhD student component, faculty exchanges, and technical consultancies in fields such as agricultural science, veterinary medicine, hydrology, environment science, forestry and computer-assisted technologies.

I am proud of the role that the U.S. Department of State has played in supporting the SUNY-YOK program.

International students are ambassadors of their countries to the United States.  Turkey is the eighth largest source of international students enrolled in American universities.  The number is growing; my staff says 12,000, but I’ve also heard that as many as 25,000 Turkish citizens currently study in the United States.  Their presence adds to academic life in my country and, perhaps in small ways, educates Americans about the world around them.  As President Bush said, “The relationships that are formed between individuals from different countries, as part of international education programs and exchanges … foster goodwill that develops into vibrant, beneficial partnerships among nations.” 

What you discuss and plan here over the next couple of days could have real consequences in the development of the GAP region in scientific, economic, and social terms.  I hope you make it so.  You can make a difference for Turkey as a country that provides opportunity for all of its citizens and that reaches beyond poverty and conflict to foster better lives in a free society for all of its people.

I would like to congratulate Chancellor Ryan, Ambassador Gosende, and the rectors and others from Turkey’s universities who are participating in these programs.  I would also like to thank the rector of Harran University, Prof. Dr, Buyukburc, for hosting this conference, an event that bestows well-deserved honor on Harran University and will afford it further exposure internationally.

I wish you all a successful conference.  Thank you.