NOMINATION FOR APRIL 2-13 TRAINING COURSE

UNCLAS ADANA 000014 SIPDIS SIPDIS PASS TO SPAS/POL: HAITHAM AL-MUSSAWI E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL TU SUBJECT: NOMINATION FOR APRIL 2-13 TRAINING COURSE REF: STATE 4727 Adana wishes to nominate Hamza Ulucay to participate in the FSN political training course. Mr. Ulucay's skills in political analysis, drafting and translating are superb; he would become even more valuable to us if he had the knowledge of and experience with the organization of the Department and the inter-agency process. In addition, Adana's contributions to the annual Human Rights Report and Religious Freedom Report are critical and Mr. Ulucay would benefit from interaction with DRL personnel responsible for those reports. Mr. Ulucay is a natural leader of the FSNs in Adana and he will share his experiences with younger members of our staff, including Adana's PD and Economic FSNs, both of whom have been hired in the past two years. Mr. Ulucay is expected to continue working at post, and will use the training, for five to ten more years. Furthermore, I am certain that during the training FSNs from other posts could benefit from Mr. Ulucay's extensive experience. Mr. Ulucay has had a few brief visits to the U.S., including a trip to be honored as FSN of the Year, but has not received any formal training there. To our knowledge, Adana has never sent an FSN to participate in political training at FSI. NAME: Hamza Ulucay GRADE FSN-10/11 LENGTH OF SERVICE: 27 years ENGLISH LANGUAGE ABILITY: Very good. The nominee completed the Online Writing Lab Course PY212 Advanced Writing/American Studies offered between February 7 - April 29, 2005. TIME SPENT IN THE UNITED STATES: 10 days in Washington in May 1992 to receive his Foreign Service National of the Year Award. 10 days in Washington and Florida to translate for a Turkish Business Delegation who attended the March 1996 American Turkish Council Meeting. Three weeks in California and Washington to translate during a training program designed by California State University in August 1996 for seven elected Irrigation Union leaders from Sanliurfa. EXPERIENCES IN HANDLING CRISIS: Mr. Ulucay was instrumental in contacting Kurds who were fleeing from Iraq to the Turkish border as a result of Saddam's use of chemical weapons in 1988 and interviewing victims about their experiences. Before the 1991 Gulf War, he went to the border to assist American citizens and Embassy personnel fleeing Iraq and Kuwait, and traveled extensively to help coordinate the U.S. response to the Kurdish refugee crisis. He served as translator for Secretary Baker and other officials in Northern Iraq, served as liaison and translator during the three-week search for American tourists kidnapped by insurgents, and served as translator for Madame Albright during her November 1999 OSCE visit to Istanbul. He served as translator and liaison for the American experts who probed the Avian Flue Outbreak in Eastern Turkey in January ¶2006. He also served as liaison and coordinator between the Turkish and American officials in the evacuation of 1700 American nationals fleeing Beirut in 2006. PREVIOUS TRAINING IN THE UNITED STATES: None GREEN