ATAMLA was formed to better educate the American public, Turkish Americans and especially our next generation in our history, culture, the principles, and ideals of Atatürk and the secular Turkish Republic, and to pass on the well deserved pride in our heritage. Turkish culture is not well known in US or whatever is known has been published through somewhat biased sources. All the public and mostly our young and children need to learn about the Independence War (first such successfull war against the major colonial powers), the foundation of the Republic of Turkey (first long surviving democracy in Middle East) and the period of Enlightenment that brought Turkey into the modern world. Only through this knowledge can all of us feel the pride on all that was accomplished and be able to expose our children to our culture and our culture to the public.

We had a longer term goal of having a community center where we could gather and enrich our Turkish experience and cultural bonds. We dreamt of a place where music lovers could meet to teach each other about various forms of Turkish music. We dreamt of a place where folk dancers could gather and perform folk dances from different regions of Turkey. We dreamt of a place where we could read Turkish authors and discuss their books and introduce our young members to Turkish literature and poetry. Our dreams extended to calligraphy, ebru, painting, playing backgammon and chess, all the elements of what enriches a community.

Atatürk Cultural Center
Well in 2019, our dreams came through. Our community has a home now. We established Atatürk Cultural Center (Atatürk Kültür Merkezi) in a central location in Carson. It has a children’s room, office, conference room and a hall to handle events. We plan to organize cultural, educational and social events to keep us - young and old - together and engaged, and keep alive the flame of Turkish Enlightenment reforms to which we all are so much indebted.

Let's Make It Better Together!
We would love to hear from you. Drop us a line about yourself and what you have in mind.