2002 Updates

These meetings and discussions were extremely valuable for ArcImaging because it allowed for new bridges of friendship and camaraderie to be built with senior Turkish officials. The first evening, Suheyla had a special dinner with only 30 donors to the scholarship fund attending at the top of a hotel, which included the Turkey’s 7th President, Minister of Culture, Marmaris Mayor, Florida Atlantic University officials, TABEC officers, and Rex Geissler. Suheyla said several very kind things publicly about ArcImaging, our research, and gave Rex Geissler two opportunities to address the group about ArcImaging’s progress to date, the permission and research in 2001, and our plans for the future. The following day was the actual dedication ceremony of the President Evren scholarship fund at Florida Atlantic University for Turkish Studies. There were numerous security guards around as an overflowing crowd attended (about 250 people as there were many students, trustees, and others standing). Before and after the ceremony, Rex Geissler met and chatted with former United States Secretary of State & General Alexander Haig and his wife. They were wonderful and very kind. Most of the TABEC attendees were seated in the first three rows toward the center along with numerous university officials.

General Haig’s comments during the ceremony were tremendously supportive of President Evren who guided Turkey through a difficult time in Turkey and was able to get the United States embargo lifted without any desire for fame or glory. Seated at the front of the room from left to right were Florida Atlantic University (FAU) President James Catanese, President & General Kenan Evren, TABEC President and ArcImaging’s Suheyla Gencsoy, Turkey’s Minister of Culture Istemihan Talay, and United States Congressman Robert Wexler. The American Pledge of Allegiance was stated, the Turkish and American anthems were sung by the FAU choir, each person at the front gave a speech on the scholarship and the importance of long-term Turkish-American relations. President Evren’s speech focused on the difficulty that Turkey has had being in the middle of traditional migratory routes and bordering eight different nations. He and General Haig discussed their deep friendship, the mistake of the United States trade embargo in the late 1970s and how it hurt Turkey and forced President Evren to declare martial law in order to restore order to the nation. The Minister of Culture also discussed how Turkey and the United States were united in many common beliefs such as democracy, the separation of church and state, and had fought together in the Korean War, Persian Gulf War, War on Terror, and now in Afghanistan as peace keepers. United States Congressman Robert Wexler discussed how along with two other congressional colleagues, they have begun a congressional committee on Turkish-American relations. Each of the speakers talked about Ataturk, how President Evren would go down in history with Ataturk, who should be taught in American schools alongside the Roosevelt Presidents and Winston Churchill. General Haig talked about his relationship with General Douglas MacArthur and how MacArthur personally corresponded with Ataturk in the 1920s and 1930s. Haig also talked about how important Turkey is to the NATO alliance as the only muslim nation. ArcImaging gifts were given through The Explorers Of Ararat books, History Channel videos, and binders including the ArcImaging Cover Letters and Research Plans.

Due to time considerations, there were some considerable omissions such as only describing a few of the purported eyewitness accounts and expeditions and not detailing more of the research, especially Charles Willis, M.D. for carrying out the most scientific research expedition of all time on Ararat in 1988 by virtually eliminating the Eastern Plateau as a possible, surviving resting place for Noah’s Ark and crediting Scott Van Dyke for the most productive expedition for the aerial photographic mapping of Ararat with about 1-foot resolution. There was a definite mistake when mentioning the Ahmet Arslan photo/object in 1989 which is on the northeast side, then bouncing to B.J. Corbin talking about his 1989 Western Plateau expedition as if he were following up on Ahmet who took his photo the same year on the other side of the ice cap. The helicopter follow-up on Ahmet’s northeast photo was really a year later in 1990 and included Corbin, Don Shockey, Robin Simmons, George Adams, Walt Brown Ph.D., Carl Baugh, Ron Charles, Robert Summers, and Ed Cassady. There was a mistatement in that the ice cap is about 17.5 square miles not 25 square miles. As well, although the item found about 20 meters away from the Durupinar site did look like a pottery shard, it was difficult to make out any of the alleged drawings on it without the aid of a visual layover. And we currently see nothing to write home about in the Ararat Anomaly area, which has apparently moved locations as well since the earlier days of the Ararat Anomaly.