Turkish Prime Minister tours CERN

On 17 November the Prime Minister of Turkey paid a visit to CERN.

The Prime Minister of Turkey (right) visiting the ATLAS control room.

On 17 November the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, visited CERN, accompanied by the Minister of State, Mehmet Aydin, and a large delegation. He was welcomed by CERN’s Director-General, Robert Aymar. The Prime Minister visited the ATLAS experiment and descended into the LHC tunnel, accompanied by Robert Aymar and ATLAS spokesperson, Peter Jenni. After signing the guest book, he met the Turkish community at CERN.

Turkey has been an Observer State of CERN since 2 June 1961. Some 90 Turkish scientists are collaborating on the CERN experiments, in particular in the ATLAS, CMS and CAST teams. A group of Turkish physicists is also participating in the CLIC project.

Just one year ago, the Turkish physics community was struck by tragedy when six Turkish physicists, including the renowned physicist Engin Arik, the head of the high-energy physics group at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, lost their lives in an air crash.