President Gül meets with Apple executive

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Turkish President Abdullah Gül (L) hosts an Apple mission headed by Vice President John Couch (R) in Ankara.

President Abdullah Gül, who is an active social media user deeply interested in computer and information technology, hosted a delegation led by Apple executive John Couch on Friday.

Although the meeting was closed to the press, reports said the Turkish government’s Fatih project to replace traditional blackboards and textbooks with electronic boards and tablet PCs was a key item on the agenda of the meeting, because Apple is interested in the related public tender for the project. As part of the project, the government will buy millions of tablet PCs under the Public Tenders Law.

Back in May 2012, Gül visited Stanford University and the headquarters of Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft in an extended visit to California’s Silicon Valley. During that visit, Gül also met with Apple CEO Tim cook.

At Friday’s meeting with Gül, Cook recalled that Apple’s Turkey office would shortly begin actively operating and underlined that they aimed to cooperate with universities in order to strengthen and support content and services, daily Radikal columnist Serdar Kuzuloğlu wrote on Friday on his blog.

Kuzuloğlu was among a group of Turkish social media experts and fellow Twitter users hosted by Gül at the presidential palace on Jan. 29.