The Anadolu Agency (AA) has grown five fold in the last two years and is well on its way to achieving its goal of becoming one of the top five agencies in the world by 2020 when the agency will celebrate its centenary, says AA Director General and Chairman of the Board Kemal Ozturk on Sunday during the opening of its New York office.
AA already has the strongest Arabic news desk said Ozturk referring to the opening of the Cairo office a year ago. He also announced that AA plans to open new offices in the northern Iraqi cities of Irbil and Kirkuk to strengthen the newly-founded Kurdish news desk.
"Considering the number of materials we produce, the Anadolu Agency now ranks among the top ten world news agencies," he said.
Turkish Ambassador to the US Namik Tan spoke at the opening ceremony of AA's America Regional Directorate New York office, praising the recent successful steps of AA towards achieving the goals set by Turkish national leader Ataturk.
"The Anadolu Agency is successful as it innovates, it dreams and supports this dream with a sound strategy," said Tan.
Turkey's permanent representative at the UN Halit Cevik said, "as permanent representatives of Turkey to the UN, we're ready to provide any support to AA."
"Hopefully, our joint efforts will take Turkey's interests and presentation a step further," he added.
The "North America Media Gathering" was also attended by NY consul general Levent Bilgen, Director General of Press and Information Department Murat Karakaya, Public Diplomacy Coordinator Cemalettin Hasimi, AA Board of Directors member Prof. Nihat Erdogmus, AA Deputy Director General and Editor-in-chief Omer Eksi, AA Deputy Director General Cagatay Culcuoglu, Turkey News Editor Ertugrul Cingil and several other guests.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
