Good news from the Confidence Index

On Wednesday morning, like always, at 7:30 am, there was a board meeting of the Turkish Investor Relations Society (TÜYİD), of which I became a founding executive board member. TÜYİD President Ms. Özge Bulut Maraşlı, who is a typical creative workaholic, did not change her 7:30 am tradition.

Everyone on the board has a career, a position at a big company, or is an expert top level manager in finance and investment. The traditional first item on the agenda is of course what is happening around the world and in Turkey. Second is the investor relations issues, in which we are aware Turkey still has much progress to make.

Turkey still has a lot of problems it needs to solve in relation to going public, which is the most obvious criterion of development in the free market economy and financial capital, and state regulations on this subject. One of the most important of them is the confidence atmosphere in the country, the foreign capital that quickly becomes hesitant from instability and uncertainty and runs.

TÜYİD organizes many activities to overcome these problems. Despite the seven years since it was first established, it has 60 members. These members represent 180 investor relations experts. It is actually a great achievement to have become an organization taken extremely seriously by the giant finance institutions in seven years.

One of the topics discussed at the latest board meeting was the decrease in the vagueness in the country and the markets – in occupational term – having 'bought' the new government. Despite all the negative conditions Turkey is currently in and is tried to be dragged into, I left that meeting with a relevantly positive feeling.

Two days later, yesterday friends shared the following information from the media:

“Confidence in economy on the rise!

The Economic confidence index increased 12 percent to 82.26 in May compared to the previous month. According to a statement by TÜİK, the rise in the economic confidence index is the result of the increase in the service sector and the consumer confidence indexes.

The economic confidence index, which saw 83.9 in January, plummeted to 71.46 in February, the lowest since TÜİK started calculating the data in January 2012, then reached 78.27 in March and 73.46 in April…”

TÜYİD's executive board had once more taken the picture right before TÜİK.

I am so upset with myself. Apparently it has been open since March. I found the chance to pay a short visit to the exhibition on the lower floor of Beşiktaş Naval Museum the other day. Just enough to get a taste of it. I left, determined to pay a longer visit with the family.

Boyut Yayınları owner Bülent Özükan, who has his name on extremely high-quality and intellectual works, has done an amazing job once again. Making money is not the priority. His real focus is to serve the country and make his mark on history. The “Pitoresk İstanbul Dijital Sergi” (Picturesque Istanbul Digital Exhibition) is a visual feast of the richness of culture and values, with Istanbul as its focus.

The originals of artists who have painted Istanbul in various periods are on display. Digital photographs prepared based on them are shown using extraordinary projection techniques.

It is a feast worth seeing that we must share with our families and children and foreign guests and all those who we want to show that we did not come to Turkey out of nowhere.

There is also the music. It completes the feast. Anjelika Akbar who I came across at the exhibition is the music director of the exhibition. Until you sit in that large hall equipped with gigantic screens and leave yourself to the magic of Istanbul in the company of that music, do not say, “I experienced Istanbul.”

The music could best be explained by Akbar herself. I asked and she sent the information via e-mail. As I hope to see you at the exhibition, I commemorate the 563rd anniversary of the conquest of Istanbul.

Akbar's notes are as follows:

“I had composed and recorded the Ayvazovsky Rhapsody exclusively for our 'Ayvazovsky's Istanbul' exhibition.

For Picturesque Istanbul I not only composed but I also directed the music. So in addition to my own compositions and adaptations, I included two other groups of works that drew my attention from that time and musically suit the topic:

The sultans' compositions and works of Western musicians who came to Istanbul in the same period have Eastern touches in their own compositions with the influence of the musical atmosphere here.

For example, compositions such as Sultan Abdülmecid's “Osmanlı Saltanat Marşı” (Ottoman Sultanate March) and Sultan Abdülaziz's “Hicaz Sirto” are also among them. Works such as Guatelli Pasha's “Aziziye Marşı” (Aziziye March) and “Osmanlı Sergi Marşı” (Ottoman Exhibition March), Luigi Ardidi's “Türk Kasidesi” (Turkish Ode), which I selected for this exhibition, reflect both sides.

The orchestration of these group works belongs mostly to Emre Aracı. Majority of the works were vocalized by the Londra Osmanlı Sergi Müziği Orkestrası. Some of the instrumental performances belong to Göksel Baktagir. Many soloists such as Mısırlı Ahmet, Mehmet Akatay, Tolga Ünaldı, among others worked on my orchestra adaptations and compositions. Among my own compositions which I particularly value include Kani Karaca's work that starts with the morning call to prayer and Dede Efendi's “Yine bir Gülnihal” (Another Rosebush), “Bektaşi Nefesi” (A Bektashi's Breath) and “Üsküdar'a Gider İken” (On the Way to Üsküdar).”

Thank you Bülent Özükan, Anjekila Akbar, the exhibition's visual director Murat Öneş and all those who contributed.