e-mail: info@btcd.org.uk

With the number of Turks now living in the UK steadily increasing, there is a proportionately increasing need to establish better dialogue between the two communities. British Turkish Committee for Dialogue (BTCD) was founded in 2005 in the hope of doing just that. We believe in a multicultural Britain and that the Turkish community will further enrich the cultural diversity in Britain. 

BTCD has no political or ideological affiliation and is dedicated to promoting awareness between the British and Turkish communities about British-Turkish history, the Turkish population in the UK and its social life.

By promoting peace, tolerance and understanding towards the Turkish community our hope is that there will be better integration into British society. We believe that cultural richness can be best achieved by mutual understanding and respect, and that it is the responsibility of both communities to build such bridges.

The vast majority of our members are UK residents mostly of Turkish descent but we do have members that contribute from other parts of the world making this a truly international and far reaching organisation. In order to have a more effective presence in Scotland, BTCD-Scotland was also established in 2005.

Our members come from varied backgrounds, some of us are managers of Turkish Associations, many of us are professionals in IT, the media and the financial sector and the rest of our members are academics who are either studying for doctorates or working as researchers for British organisations.

Our activities so far, have been in two specific areas

· The Media
· Edinburgh Council


The Media

We have successfully run a number of campaigns to correct inaccurate or misleading information that has been released by various media outlets regarding Turkey. Here at home, these have included successful requests for correction to the BBC and The Times and internationally, the UN Relief Web agency. 

In an effort to analyse why migrant and third generation Turks are so inactive and unresponsive in terms of grassroots politics, BTCD have published an article in the Turkish based online newspaper, Referans, calling on Turks living in the UK to be more active and visible in British society. BTCD have also made a number of press releases aiming to keep the Turkish community informed about events in the UK which affect them and to the British community of our condemnation of the July 2005 attacks in London.

Edinburgh Council

Our initial and most significant project to date was a seven-month campaign in response to the Edinburgh City Council leaderships plans to table a motion recognising the Armenian war tragedy of the World War I period as "genocide" perpetrated by Turks. The BTCD-Edinburgh Committee collected signatures against this motion, particularly in Scotland and also internationally, and cooperated with other Turkish Associations in organising a seminar on the subject at Edinburgh Council premises. Under pressure from intensive campaigning and following meetings with the Council leadership, voting on the motion was postponed several times and the text of the motion was amended. BTCD hosted the seminar and once again voiced the concerns of British Turks during the Council meeting. 

Our activities today

BTCD is aiming to start an awareness campaign within the Turkish community with hopes of persuading the British government that the announcement it made this week that it will be increasing the qualifying period for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) in the UK from 4 to 5 years as of 3 April 2006 is unjust and sets back any progress made in the development of trust between migrants and the British government. We strongly oppose the notion that it will apply with immediate effect to everyone already in the UK with hopes of applying for ILR.

Contact us

We welcome all comments, recommendations and contributions. If you would like further information about our organisation or to be an active member please visit our website www.btcd.org.uk or send us an email at info@btcd.org.uk.