Association for Liberal Thinking

Key dates and relationships

1992: Alex Chafuen meets Atilla Yayla at the Mont Pelerin Society (MPS) meeting in Vancouver, Canada. (Linda Fisher Whetstone perhaps recommended Atilla to attend the MPS, at the time she was not on the board of Atlas US but heading Atlas U.K.). Alex took picture of Atilla and Gary Becker [need to find]. Currently (2021) Linda Whetstone is chairman of the Atlas Network, and also President of the Mont Pelerin Society (which plans a regional meeting in Morocco in 2023)

ALT was already operating as an association (publishing many books)

June 22, 1993: Atilla sends a long a letter to Alex with 4 key requests (need to find and incorporate)

1994 was a very active year in our relationship. April 1^st, was the official launching of ALT (with all the formal legal requirements). ALT organized a symposium “Open Society and Free Market Economy” on May 7^th . Atilla Yayla visits the US around July 11-August 5^th. Then on September 23-25 Atlas sponsors Atilla to attend the Atlas workshop in the UK at Ashdown Park, the ancestral estate of Antony Fisher. Atlas begins supporting part of ALT’s book publication program.

Omar Caha does fellowship at Atlas. Coskun Can Aktan, also comes to Atlas for some time (need to find dates).

Atilla visits Atlas again in August 1996 and Atlas plans to conduct its 28^th international workshop with Atilla Yayla in Istanbul (in mid-September after the Mont Pelerin Society Meeting in Vienna). Curiosity: rooms were 70U$ and I believe the hotel was the Armada.

In 1997 Atilla writes: “My stay in the USA and especially in Atlas has been very useful in every respect. I am grateful to Atlas and everybody there for their friendship and understanding” (July 16, 1997).

Atilla tells Atlas that he seeks to discover classical liberal leaders who can start think tanks in Central Asian Turkish Republics. ALT translates Michael Novak’s Intellectual Property Rights book.

Atlas supports ALT publication of books and booklets by John Gray, Ronald Coase, and Robert Ekelund.

Mustafa Erdogan does program in US as Fullbright Fellow but active with Atlas, he translates Norman Barry’s book on Classical Liberalism. September 18, CIPE.org approves a project for ALT. Atlas is mentioned in a Kemalist magazine as supporting the subversive [sic] activities of ALT . . . (article written by retired general Müdafaa-i-Hukuk, but I lost the copy)

October 1997: Atlas supports the publication of Facts not Fear in Turkey. Bekir Ozipek still at Atlas for fellowship. Then in November 3-4, 1997, Alex and Atilla attend CIPE sponsored program in Cairo, Egypt.

1998, the books sponsored by Atlas are released

1999, Atlas sends several boxes of books to ALT

April 12, 2000 "Islam, Civil Society, and Market Economy" edited by Attila Yayla, produced by ALT wins a Sir Antony Fisher Award. Nobel Laureate James Buchanan and Israel Kirzner were among the judges.

2001 Atlas donates 76 more books to ALT

January 10-11 2004, Alex participates in ALT organized symposium in Istanbul with Erdogan and almost 2,000 participants.

In 2005, when Jon B. Utley (RIP) of the Frieda Utley Foundation asked Atlas to administer a special award to think tanks doing courageous work ALT won the first Prize among hundreds of think tanks around the globe.

ALT also won Templeton Awards administered by Atlas

In 2011 the leaders of ALT organized a regional Mont Pelerin Society meeting in Istanbul.

ALT selected by Atlas as Free-Enterprise center (a hub to train other champions of the free economy in the Muslim world)

To be continued