Turkish-born, U.S. educated Sel Erder Yackley has added another feat to her long list of accomplishments. Her memoirs “Never Regret the Pain: Loving and Losing a Bipolar Spouse,” is in its second printing by Helm Publishing.

Affectionately known as “Mama Turk” in Chicago for her nurturing nature Sel Erder Yackley was recognized as a Daughter of Ataturk at the turn of the century. Because she has played a leading role in every Turkish cause in the Midwest including the founding of the Turkish American Cultural Alliance (TACA) in the 1960s, she was honored with a Meritorious Service Award by ATAA in 2002.

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Savouring a Turkish delight

Orhan Kural hates football, long sentences by post-modern novelists, watching television and smoking. He also frowns on sleep, an activity he restricts to three hours a day.

He would rather use the time to book tickets, pack bags, board planes, get immersed in cultures across the globe and then sit down before his word processor to spin tales of travel.

The travel writer known in his home country as ‘Modern Evliya Celebi,’ after the legendary Turkish traveller, has visited 187 countries and penned eight books of travel.

Orhan Kural is now working on his next book, which, he says, will be a compilation of his writings on India. “I have been to India seven times but couldn’t make it to Kerala despite having heard about it,” says Kural, greatly impressed by the natural beauty of the State.

He believes that when a country loses out on environment, there are chances that it will also lose its tourist potential. Travel, according to Kural, helps people get to know each other and removes prejudices.

“Globalisation is destroying cultures across the world. I wouldn’t like to come here to eat pizzas and drink Coca-Cola,” he said.

A mining engineer by profession and an environmentalist by passion, there are a few topics Orhan has failed to touch.

The 55-year-old, who speaks four languages, is at ease with Photography, Anthropology, Cinema, Theatre, Coal technology and Mathematics.

He is on the mining faculty at Istanbul Technical University and has edited an academic tome Coal, which was prepared over a period of six years with 52 authors and 157 scientists from 61 countries contributing to it.

Kural is also the President of the self-owned Turkish Travellers Club. The Club has links with similar institutions in other countries and provides valuable advice to travellers who visit Turkey.

“The club has now about 70 members among whom there are famous authors, photographers, scientists and various other people who come together with a common love of travel,” says Kural who is in Kerala with five other Turkish tourists.

So, is there some place that he does not want to go?

“The moon. I wouldn’t go there because there are no people on the moon,” he says. One place he badly wants to visit is Papua New Guinea.

“They are denying visas to Turkish nationals after one of our banks brought out an ad that hurt their feelings. I have written to them saying it is wrong to deny visas for all Turks because of this,” he says.

Website: www.orhankural.com

Yasemin Pirinccioglu was born in the USA to Turkish parents who were on a Fullbright scholarship to Columbia and NYU.

She had her primary education in the U.S. and started working in her family business as a student travel adviser in 1968 at the VIP Student Travel offices when she herself was a student at the French Lycée Notre Dame de Sion in Istanbul. She was trained at the Scandinavian Student Travel Services in Copenhagen for the job. Yasemin had many jobs in the hospitality industry: She worked as a trainee at Turkish Airlines and at VIP until she went to University in Paris to study Economics at Tolbiac Paris 13 for 2 years. She studied at the International Marketing for Tourism School for one year and went to work for Jettours (Air France Tour Operator) in Paris as a trainee and was appointed to the Olympic Games project of Jettours to then work in Paris, Montreal, and NYC in 1976.

Married in 1977, Ms. Pirinccioglu left for the UK to live in London and worked on as a volunteer and produced Noureev’s “The Sleeping Beauty” at the Turkish National Opera and Ballet where she worked for 2 years as a volunteer production director. Ms. Pirinccioglu since then has been one of Mr Rudolf Noureev’s personal friends until he died.

Back to Turkey in 1981, she started working for non-profit organisations and organized many fund raising events for the Istanbul Childrens Fund at the Capa Medical University. She is one of the co founders of the Geyre Foundation in Turkey for supporting and promoting the Archaeological site of Aphrodisias, where field work is supported also by the NYU Master Program. She is still on the Executive Board and is the Project Director for “The New Museum for Aphrodisias” project. She went to study History of Arts and worked on many projects with her Professor Nurhan Atasoy, Dean of the Faculty of Letters and Professor Of History of Arts at the Istanbul University.

In 1989, Ms. Pirinccioglu launched VIP Events which is now re-known for the most extravagant parties and events organized in Turkey and in 1990, started a PR and Lobbying Company with the collaboration of Saatchi & Saatchi and Grey Advertising in Turkey.

In 1993, Ms. Pirinccioglu started to work full time in charge of events in VIP Tourism and in 1996, was appointed as President of VIP Tourism Turkey, a Destination Management Company specialized in upscale business and leisure travel, corporate travel, conference management, incentives and meetings, special events, and public relations, established in 1968 by her parents Inci & Fethi Pirinccioglu.

Ms. Pirinccioglu is an art collector specializing in Ottoman History and Arts and Archaeology. She is a founding member of the Geyre Foundation of Aphrodisias (an archaeological site in Turkey), the Turkish Institute of Underwater Archaeology, the Women Entrepreneurs Association and the Modern Museum of Istanbul. Ms. Pirinccioglu is a free spirit with a great sense of humour who loves to ski, dance, swim and trek. She has a son and a daughter.