We have recently been running on such a busy agenda that we cannot remember what happened a year ago. And it becomes harder to remember more distant past.

I was in the USA 17 years ago when the August 17^th Marmara Earthquake occurred, but I can still remember the sad incident very clearly. In those days, we provided guidance to American NGOs that wanted to help our country after the earthquake. More than 17 thousand people lost their lives in the disaster. May them rest in peace.

Müzeyyen Senar passed away today (February 8^th, 2015) at the age of 97. Some of us grew up listening to her and watching her, and some of us even felt as if we knew her in person. She touched our lives through her music and left behind fine memories. Before her, there were some other names more or less like her but no one was the likes of her.

Mrs. Senar studied music with the greatest tutors of the Ottoman Empire and became the greatest classical Turkish music singer in the young Republic of Turkey. She was the last person to perform in the presence of Atatürk. Müzeyyen Senar was not a shining star that faded out in time. Her light will shine for a very long time. My deepest sympathies to her family and her fans. May she rest in peace.