Talat Sait Halman

Talat Sait Halman served as the first Minister of Culture of the Turkish Republic. Currently he is Professor and Chairman, Department of Turkish Literature and Dean of Humanities and Letters, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.

Formerly he was on the faculties of Columbia, Pennsylvania, and Princeton Universities for many years, and from 1986 to 1996, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Literatures at New York University.

He served as Ambassador for Cultural Affairs and Turkey’s Deputy Permanent Representative at the United Nations.

He has published more than sixty books (including 12 collections of his own poetry in Turkish and English) and 3000 articles in Turkish and English.

From 1991 to 1995, he served as an elected member of the UNESCO Executive Board.

Currently he is President of the UNICEF Turkish National Committee.

He holds honorary doctorates from Boğaziçi and Ankara Universities.

Honours and awards include Distinguished Service Awards of the Turkish Academy of Sciences and the Turkish Foreign Ministry, and “Knight Grand Cross, G.B.E., The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire”, (counterpart of “Sir”) conferred on him by Queen Elizabeth II.