Omer Zulfu Livaneli was born in Ilgin, Turkey in 1946. After being held under military detention for three months during the coup of March 12 th, 1971, he had to leave Turkey and move to Sweden. After Stockholm, he lived in Paris and Athens, and he returned to Turkey in 1984.

Livaneli’s latest novel “Leyla’s House” was published in Turkey in May 2006; as of today it’s in its 45th edition and a number one best-seller.

His third novel “Bliss”, published in 2002, also a number one best-seller, made 44 editions, became almost a cult work and is recently adapted to cinema in Turkey. In 2005, “Bliss” was published in Greece and Sweden, and in 2006, it was published in France by Gallimard, in the United States by St.Martin’s Press and in Italy by Gremese. Immediately after its publication in the latter, Bliss was awarded by Barnes & Noble, the biggest bookstore chain in the world, with the annually given “Discover Great New Authors” award due to its “superior literary value”. Bliss will soon be published in Norway by Gylendal and in Netherlands by Prometheus/ Bert Bakker. His second novel “One Cat One Man One Death”, his first novel “The Eunuch of Constantinople” and a collection of his stories titled “A Child in Purgatory” have also been published abroad.

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Funda is a versatile cabaret artist: alert, spontaneous, obstinate and up to date. From time to time provocative on the political and social field, with of course the necessary dose of humor. All qualities, that are in fact indispensable for a cabaret artist.

Funda Müjde is known to the general public for her leading part in the award-winning movie Julia’s geheim, but as well for her parts in TV series like Medisch Centrum West, Vrouwenvleugel and Zeg ‘ns Aaaa and more recently Hallo Holland. In addition to this, she appears in the ‘Telegraaf’ (one of leading Dutch newspapers) every Friday with her column.

She doesn’t mince her words in her own theater plays either.

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Nilgün Yerli was born on 11 November 1969 in Kirsehir, Turkey. She moved to the Netherlands at age 10 with her parents, and grew up in Steenwijkerwold.

Her parents returned to Turkey when Yerli was fifteen. She moved to Haarlem, where she went to high school, and supported herself by working at different small jobs.

With a friend, she began the duo ‘Turkish Delight’. In 2000, Yerli started her solo program ‘Wat zeg ik?’(What say I?) in the theater, followed with the show ‘Vreemde vreemdgangers’ (Strange Cheaters) in 2001.

When Nilgün Yerli moved to the Netherlands, she had no idea of what she had gotten herself into. There were so many things that she had never seen, heard, felt, or tasted in Turkey. A coffee maker, a birthday calendar on the bathroom wall, “zwarte piet”, hiding Easter eggs, dog poop on the street, “Dutch treat”, wooden shoes, peanut butter, licorice, and last but not least, bologna rolled in a pickle.

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Hanzade Dogan

Impeccably dressed daughter of Turkey’s billionaire media baron Aydin Dogan has an impressive résumé: London School of Economics degree, Columbia University
M.B.A. and a stint as a Goldman Sachs technology analyst during 1990s. The reward: plum spot as chief executive of Dogan Gazetecilik, which controls 35% of Turkey’s newspaper circulation, including the Milliyet daily. With sister and brother-in-law, she sits on board of Dogan Holding, run by her father.

Based in Washington, D.C., Tülin Daloğlu is a correspondent for Turkey’s Star TV. She also writes a column for the Star newspaper.

Previously, Ms. Daloğlu was a reporter and producer for the BBC in Turkey. Her last assignment there was to cover the trial of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. In the 2002 general election, she ran for a seat in Parliament as a member of the New Turkey Party.

Ms. Daloğlu earned B.S. and M.A. degrees in international relations at the Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey. She also completed an M.A. degree in journalism and public affairs at the American University in Washington, D.C.

Born in Izmir, Turkey, Meltem (Yaşaroğlu) Birkegren graduated from T.E.D. Ankara Koleji in 1969. She studied at the Academy of Economical & Commercial Sciences in Ankara (AITIA), majoring in Foreign Trade. After graduation in 1973, she joined Ericsson Türk Ticaret, Ltd as Assistant Trade Director, and eventually became the Trade Director. She remained in that position until May 1985 when she got married and moved to Sweden, where she was rehired by Ericsson to work at their headquarters. After two years in Stockholm, she moved to Nassau, Bahamas with her husband where she stayed until August 1988 when she moved to Ft.Lauderdale, Florida in the U.S.A. where she still resides.

She started her own Export company in 1989, and has been in the same business ever since. Her company exports heavy duty machinery parts, especially for ships engines, as well as equipment and parts for larger hotels. She also provides Turkish interpreter services, and she is a partner at Europe House, Inc.

Meltem who always wanted to be a journalist fulfilled this dream partially, by first posting news articles on different Yahoo groups and the Turkish Forum, then she started her own electronic online newspaper called Turkish Digest.

The news in Turkish Digest is in English and about Turkey, collected daily from a variety of sources. In a very short time the site reached a reader capacity of couple thousand “hits” per day.

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