This ceremony, organized under the sponsorship of the Turkish Historical Society on the occasion of the 200 th anniversary of Columbia university, is a new proof of the increasingly close relationship and cooperation between our country and the United States. This extends also into the domain of science. For one who has had the honor of working for more than twenty years with Turkish universities, there is hardly anything more enjoyable and remarkable than to join in the commemoration of an outstanding anniversary of a great New World university on the completion of its two hundredth year.