MARTI Members gathered together with their neighbors at a Picnic organized by MARTI. The picnic is held at Brighton Dam which has a great scene of dam and river. About 60 people attanded to the picnic and they enjoyed wonderful Turkish meatballs and chicken BBQ. People had great time with their neighbors at this event which is planned to be organized each year, on the first sunday of August. The message given by most of the attendees at the end of picnic is "awakening the neighborhood with such events for a better life in terms of peace and harmony is a must. This event should be organized in a bigger picnic area with more attendees".

MARTI plans to have such a picnic organization every year with a growing interest and we would like all our members to mark their calendars and share this event with their neighbors in advance.

Our women members organized a Turkish hand-made arts and crafts exhibition & bazaar which also included delicious examples from Turkish cuisine. This event was held on 22-23 of May between 10am and 10pm at MARTI's office. There was a great interest to Turkish hand-made arts and crafts and most of them were sold out immediately. Moreover, delicious food from Turkish cuisine such as baklava, borek, manti, sarma and kisir are sold with reasonable prices. We also made a presentation which introduces and explains the historic background of Turkish hand-made arts during the bazaar. There were many people even coming from Virgina and DC area in order to shop at the bazaar and taste the delicious food. This event was a great opportunity for people to meet and know each other who are interested in Turkish culture. We again thank to our honorable women members for organizing such a successful event and hope to repeat these kinds of events at least once a year at MARTI.

A big circle of our Turkish and American friends have shown a lot of interest in the exhibition of Turkish foot and art-and-craft items which are important components of our customs and culture.

The fair has started at 10am and continued till 10pm on Saturday and Sunday. Before, during and after the fair, our friends supported and helped us on preparing the food and the exhibition. Participants and visitors of the fair has pointed that such events are very much beneficial and necessary for the cultural interactions between the American and Turkish nations, and they insisted on the more than one occurrence of the fair during the year. Specifically, Ahmed Siddiqui pointed that “It is very good and exciting to organize this event here, but it could be even better, if it could be done in a larger room”, and Cariv Weisberg said that “I heard the event from my friend. I wish success to your foundation organizing this fair which is facilitating the cultural interactions between Turkey and US”, while Jeane Gayle mentioned that “I enjoyed very much to see the exhibition that introduces Turkey. I hope again it can be carried out in a larger space, since I want to bring my friends next time. Besides, the food was terrific. Thanks for inviting me.”

Turkish people living in Maryland gathered in Slayton House of Columbia to celebrate Eidul Adha known as Kurban Bayrami at 1st of Februrary, 2004. The celebration program organized by MARTI hosted almost 250 people and started with the recitation of Turkish National Anthem. After the speech given by the President of MARTI Hasan Kumbasar, on Eid and its Celebration in the US, a short presentation which provided brief information about the aims and activities of MARTI is shown on the screen. The program continued with the performance of wonderful traditional folk dances of Turkey prepared by the kids of age 6 to 12. After a meal consisting of beef, rice and Turkish baklava is served, the music group "Chesapeake Bulbulleri" sang several Classical Turkish music songs. The celebration program ended at 6:30pm with a great success. We are grateful to all our members who helped us in organizing this event and to those who attended the event. The program is recorded to a DVD and can be obtained from MARTI upon request.

We organized a cig kofte party on 20 March 2004 in honor of Bulent Kiziltan’s farewell to Baltimore before he left for Turkey.