Special Guest Speaker-49th Commander of the Turkish Land Forces, Salih Zeki Colak

Please join THO and BAU on  Monday, July 16, for an exclusive interview with Ret. General, Commander of the Turkish Land Forces, Salih Zeki Colak. This event will focus on the second anniversary of the July 15 coup attempt that took place in 2016.

Moderator: Derya Taskin, President of DSC Consulting &Turkish American Activist 

Born in Akçaabat (Trabzon), Salih Zeki Colak is a retired general of the Turkish military. He graduated from the Military Academy of Artillery and Missile school in 1975. After participating in various military programs and operations within Turkey and abroad, he became the Commander of the High Military Post-Army Land Forces Command in 2015. Salih Zeki Çolak served as a Western European Union Military Representative in the NATO Turkish Military Representative Council in Brussels-Belgium in 1995-1998. On the night of the July 15th coup attempt he was taken hostage by his subordinates in the military. In 2017, it was announced that Salih Zeki Colak retired after completing his services to the nation of Turkey. 

Paolo von Schirach is the President of the Global Policy Institute, (GPI). Paolo von Schirach is also a Professor in the EMBA Program at BAU International University. His research and teaching focuses on international economics, competition policies, and industrial innovation. Paolo von Schirach holds higher degrees from the London School of Economics; Georgetown University where he was also a Fulbright Scholar and a Fellow in the Government Department; the University of Pisa, Italy; and the Scuola Universitaria Superiore Sant’Anna of Pisa.He worked as a Research Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, CSIS. This was followed by filling the role of Director of Communications, and later on Senior Research Fellow, at the Atlantic Council. He was Deputy Director of the Global Security Project at Georgetown University. More recently, he was an Adjunct Professor in the Graduate Program of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, (MSFS). He has been a frequent lecturer at the Foreign Service Institute, (FSI), the Federal Government's primary training institution for officers of the U.S. foreign affairs community.Paolo von Schirach has extensive professional experience in international economic development. 

Ambassador Lincoln P. Bloomfield is a Distinguished Fellow and Chairman Emeritus at the Stimson Center. He has served as a national security official in the administrations of Presidents Reagan, G.H.W. Bush and G.W. Bush. Amb. Bloomfield was appointed by President Bush to be the U.S. Special Envoy for MANPADS Threat Reduction from 2008-09 with the rank of Ambassador. From 2001-2005 he was U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs, also serving as Special Representative of the President and Secretary of State for Humanitarian Mine Action. He previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs (1992-93), Deputy Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs (1991-02), and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (1988-89). Amb. Bloomfield founded Palmer Coates LLC in 2005. A graduate of Harvard College (a.b. cum laude, 1974) and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (M.A.L.D., 1980) where he was Director of The Fletcher Forum, the school’s foreign affairs journal.