We, the Presidents of America's largest Turkish American grassroots organizations, the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA) and Federation of Turkish American Associations (FTAA), have submitted letters to the NBC Today Show regarding the program's erroneous reference to Turkey as "Kurdistan" and requesting corrective action.   We respectfully ask that Turkish Americans and Friends of Turkey write to the NBC Today Show and request a public correction.  Please click here to send your letter to NBC from the communication network generously provided by the Turkish Coalition of America (TCA).   Thank you   Respectfully Yours,   Gunay Evinch                                         Kaya Boztepe President                                                President ATAA                                                      FTAA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mr.Jim Bell  Executive producer of  Today Show Today's Show - NBC 30 Rockefeller Plaza New York , N. Y. 10112   December 21, 2009   Dear Mr.Bell:   My letter is written to you on behalf of the broad of directors of the  Federation of Turkish American Association's, FTAA  and its president Kaya Boztepe.   As a regular NBC's Today's  show viewer, I have relied on your network for news and analysis, particularly concerning major local and international events. Yet on one recent program, I was taken aback strongly enough to take the trouble to bring the matter to your attention. NBC's Today's Show  program on December 18, 2009  morning - relating to the story on Iran  detaining 3 of our fellow Americans , presented a large territory on a map named “Kurdistan,” covering three nations, mostly Turkey. ( Turkey was not named; Iran and Iraq were.) Since every nation would get upset with any kind of acknowledgement encouraging the idea of secession and the devaluing of territorial integrity, all three of these nations would have reason to feel wronged; but I would prefer to confine the discussion to what has been one of America’s staunchest allies through the years, Turkey.   A map your broad cast NBC's Today's show  displayed on air looked like a product of PKK terrorist organization (i.e. listed as a terrorist organization in US and Europe) that has taken 40,000 innocent lives in Turkey in the past two decades. They are not just brutal killers, but drug smugglers and human traffickers. But, I cannot understand how NBC's Today's Show  posts such a map. I imagine the last thing that NBC or Today's  Show  wants  to become a tool for a terrorist organization. NBC's  Today's Show editors or producers may have missed their history classes during  their elementary school years . So lets review a lesson in history of the current borders of  the Republic of Turkey  which was established  by  Lausanne Treaty in 1923. There was no " Kurdistan " state neither before this date or nor after this date. These Turkish cities cited as part of  "Kurdistan" in the video along with other cities of Turkey were part of Ottoman Empire before this Treaty.    May we remind you  that " Kurdistan " is not an internationally recognized name for the region. It is a name used by Kurdish terrorist groups to indicate their ambition which is to form a state in this region someday in the future.  This imaginative "Kurdistan" state requires changes of current borders of Iran , Turkey and Iraq .  When you use " Kurdistan " name, you are unintentionally supporting Kurdish terrorist group’s objectives. I cannot imagine this can be your purpose. Millions of Turkish people along with people Kurdish origin live in the part of the so called Kurdistan region within Turkish borders. This region is called South East Anatolia, not Kurdistan . Just as there would be, for example, no such thing as, say,“Lesser Cuba” overlapping the Florida region of a United States map.) Please make the correction to your maps.   When  NBC's Today show legitimizes an independent "Kurdistan", even in an implied fashion, not only is it broadcasting a falsehood (of course, the lifeblood of a news organization is its integrity), but your news network tacitly gives weight to the notion that Turkey’s sovereignty is unsound and/or unjustified; the latter only fuels the efforts of those who strive to weaken Turkey. As a loyal viewer, I would hope NBC and Today's Show producers as part of a publicly traded company on the New York stock exchange  -General Electric GE  would be more wary of straying from the path of the facts, and from the path of being an accomplice to the views of a terrorist organization. We wonder how the SEC would look at such spoon feed distorted information coming from a publicly traded company.   We  at the Federation of Turkish American Association or the Turkish Embassy in US or Turkish Consulates in other major cities of US such as NY, Washington , DC ,  and Chicago would  be happy to review the sensitive contents such as this article about Turkey or the region  before it gets posted or aired. It would not be presumptuous of me to state that I am not only speaking for myself, but for the Turkish American community; we expect fair treatment on these sensitive issues, and hope that NBC and  Today's Show producers  can be objective and share only the correct information with their viewers. NBC- Today Show should immediately correct this issue and apologize for insulting the Turkish nation.   Ibrahim Kurtulus Advisor to the President of Turkish American Association, FTAA