Akif Gursoy in the BT Office
Akif was born in 1964 in Turkey, but his family left immediately for Germany, where he lived until he was 13 years old. German is his native language, even though he has been away from Germany for more than 33 years. He learned English at Middle East Technical University (METU) studying management. Although he has never been to England or the U.S. his English is very good.
He has tried on many different professional “hats” over the years. He coordinated a construction business for a hotel built in Kartalkaya, he was operations supervisor in the ground handling service in Esenboğa airport, and he was the sales coordinator for AUDI in Ankara. He also owned an advertising firm for four years and then took a position learning the printing and press business. He worked at Aydan Printing and Press in Ankara for over 10 years until 2009, mastering the technological developments of photographic computerized workflows. During these years, he produced many printed materials, including several books, for the Ministry of Culture, having complex technological attributes, which made them difficult to print.
For the last eight years of his life in Ankara, he also owned a live music bar called “Yolcu.” In 2007, Yolcu was elected by Hürriyet newspaper as the fifth best rock music bar in Turkey, and the best in Ankara. The bar is still very active, but with a different owner.
Akif started working as a photographer in 1984 and he was one of the founding members of the photography club in METU. During that time he made several expositions, and received several awards for his art work.
In 1990, he became the founder and editor for the first two issues of the journal “25.Kare” meaning “25th Frame.” The journal is a publication for a suite of film, photography and video editing studios and is still in publication.
In 1991 Akif shot his first film, which was an experimental short film about the works of Ingmar Bergman. It had some metaphoric scenes which were relevant to Bergman’s films, “Persona” and “Passion of Anna”. From 1997 through 2000 he was a volunteer in the Ankara Film Festival for which he became the manager. He later resigned after the death of Mahmut Tali Öngören, the festival’s founder. For several more years Akif continued to be the editor of the Festival catalogue.
In 1999, Akif organized the election campaign of “Köksal Toptan” and three other people in the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Although he believes the campaign was well done, none of the candidates were elected.
Although he had visited Kaş many times over the previous 15 years, the timing was never right for him to leave Ankara or his work. During that time he made several extended holidays in Kaş, Kalkan and Patara. However, he made a decision to change all that on the 22nd of July, 2009, while on holiday in Kaş. He returned to Ankara the same day, got married on the 14th of August, quit his job at Aydan, sold the bar, and moved to Kaş on the 20th of August. His life radically and completely changed in one month’s time. His biggest aim is to buy some land and start a farm near Kaş.
Akif spends time trying to learn to play the guitar, but so far with little success. He walks everyday in Kaş, usually more than five kilometres, to different destinations and occasionally walks with the Bougainville Trekking Groups .
Akif has worked as a member of the Bougainville sales team since April 2010. He and Halide Bilginer are making plans to maintain Bougainville in its current place as an experienced adventure activity company where all people are welcome. The sales office has, as its mission, to show that Bougainville is different from other adventure companies, that it is a better agency to choose, and that it is doing business professionally and applying all of the European Community safety and legal requirements.
Good luck to Akif and Halide.
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