ATAA Welcomes Chief Mufti of Bulgaria
By Ercument Kilic, ATAA President - On January 22nd ATAA headquarters was the site of a reception and a press conference given in honor of the Chief Mufti of Bulgaria, Selim Mehmed, and the Rector of the Higher Islamic Institute of Bulgaria, Huseyin Citak. Both are in Washington DC as guests of the U.S. State Department on a fact finding mission to make comparisons between the religious freedoms here and in Bulgaria.

The event, which was hosted by ATAA President Ercument Kilic, ATAA Secretary General Ozgur Karaosmanoglu and ATAA Capital Regional Vice President Oya Bain, saw a large group of guests including Steven Schwarts and Nir Bom from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Zeyno Baran from the Nixon Institute, the head of the Virginia Technology Council, Ms. Valerie Pelton, the President of Washington's Turkish Women's Association, Emel Dizdar, the Imam of the Turkish American Islamic Foundation, Hasan Yavuzer, as well as local small and big business owners, members of the Turkish American community and the Turkish media.

Last year, ATAA has paid a formal delegation visit to Bulgaria and during this trip Turkish Americans saw for themselves the advances of the Turkish Bulgarian community. As the ATAA family and Turkish-Americans, we were excited to once again to re-strengthen our ties with them, and to highlight their visit to the United States. We will continue to support our brothers and sisters there in the future.