THE NEW INDEPENDENT STATES OF INNER ASIA AND TURKEY'S POLICY

MAJOR RESEARCH TEAM OF THE PROJECT

Osman ARAY

Project Director - Editor

B.Baykal EYYUBOĞLU

Major Researcher

Few Words About Osman Aray and B.Baykal Eyyuboğlu

OSMAN ARAY

            Osman Aray (Ankara 1947), holds a (B.Sc.) Degree in Economics and a (M.A.) degree in Demography. His first visit to the Ex-USSR and Central Asia took place in 1979 through a fellowship he received from the United Nations Development Programme while he was working at the State Institute of Statistics as Senior Specialist in Demographic Researches Department. During his one-year stay in the Ex-USSR, he married Larisa Aray, and found the opportunity to visit every republic of Central Asia and various other places of the USSR. Also, he attended courses at the Tashkent State University on economics and statistics and obtained a Certificate. Up to 1988, together with his wife, Osman Aray visited Soviet Central Asia several times and studied the social and economic spheres of the region. Between 1988-1996, he worked as Deputy General Director in various Turkish contracting companies, and successfully developed and completed many big size projects in Central Asian republics. During this period, he found the opportunity to establish good relations with the leading political entities of the region.

            Since July 1997, Osman Aray has been working as the Project Director and Editor of "The New Independent States in Inner Asia and Turkey’s Policy" research, which is jointly carried out by National Policy Research Foundation (Turkey) and National Institute for Research Development (Japan). He also contributes regularly to the TRT programmes on (Avrasya Channel) as a specialist on Central Asia. He is currently involved in his Ph.D. dissertation on "Demographic and Ethnic Structure of Central Asia and Azerbaijan". Mr. Aray is fluent in English and Russian.

He can be contacted at aray@dialup.ankara.edu.tr

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B. BAYKAL EYYUBOĞLU

                B. Baykal Eyyuboğlu (Ankara, 1973), received his B.Sc. degree from Department of International Relations, Middle East Technical University. Currently he is a M.Sc. candidate in International Economics, at Gazi University. His other fields of interest are the Balkans, the European Union and Transfer of Technology. He is fluent in English. He is currently working as the Major Researcher in the National Policy Research Foundation, for "The New Independent States in Inner Asia and Turkey's Policy" project.

He can be contacted at baykalc@hotmail.com

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