Who is Ali Haydar Bozkurt?
I was born in 1967. I lived the first 29 years of my life in Adana where in April, the streets are smelling of orange flowers.
During this time, besides my education life, I did professional theater studies. I also played licensed basketball for many years. I also devoted a lot of time to hobbies such as photography, music, etc.
I continue to regularly visit Adana at certain intervals. However, I continue to come to Adana wherever I am in the world, especially in April every year, in the Orange Blossom Season, as we call it as Adana lovers. I could not do this for only 1 year. Thanks to them that year too, my teacher, my dear friends put the orange flowers they collected in jars and sent them to me by cargo. I kept those jars in my fridge for a week. Every day, in the morning and evening, I was opening the jars and sniffing them, dreaming that I was wandering the streets of Adana in April by closing my eyes. Perhaps it is a little difficult to explain this to a person who has never experienced this before. But it is a beauty that will remain in mind for a lifetime.
Every April, I definitely visit Adana, especially in the evening, when the orange flowers are most intense, I wear my jeans, my t-shirt and my indispensable white Converse and go out to the streets of the city. These walks are something that I am not tired of doing for hours… I have a different memory everywhere I pass… The scent of orange flowers in waves in the background… The magical scent that cleans my soul enough to make me love everyone and everything …
When we were children, there were also orange gardens very close to the city center in Adana, and in the evening, the wind carried the orange flower scents collected from those gardens to the streets of the city. Everywhere it passed, waves would hit us… Now, there are no orange gardens in the city center, but thanks to the orange trees on all the streets and the trees in the parks in the city center, you can find the same scent in all the streets you walk on.
I had a social, artistic and sports-oriented education life in Adana. I am a graduate of Ayas College. In fact, I am one of the first male graduates of the school. We only were 2 boys in the class. Our only problem was that we had to form mixed teams for boys and girls because we could not form a boys' team in interclass basketball matches. We were lucky… We had lifelong memories and friendships that we will never break away.
During my university years, I did not break away from Adana and graduated from Çukurova University, Department of Business Administration in English.
I have never studied in my entire education life. My extracurricular times were so full of activities such as drama, basketball, music and photography that I did not have time to study, so I was trying to learn by listening to the lessons carefully. Despite this, I guess I became a successful student.
Although it was a bit late in 1996 (I was 29 years old at the time), I came to Istanbul to start my professional career. During this time, I held different positions in different companies. Currently, I am CEO and Chairman of Toyota Turkey, and at the same time I am CEO and Chairman of ALJ Holding.
I believe that success comes from "making a difference" and that the most fundamental element for the realization of all goodness and beauty in the world is effective communication.
For all these reasons, I wanted to share with you the beauties unique to Adana that make a difference. The main purpose of the establishment of this site is to explain the not well-known orange blossom season of Adana and the beauties of this season to as many people as possible. This invitation does not have a political or commercial purpose in any way. By preserving our sensitivity in this matter to the end, we want to put forward a "love" job and invite everyone who wants to live this experience with us in Adana in April.
Based on this, "In Adana in April (Nisan`da Adana`da)!" We started off with this slogan. With the support of all friends from Adana or not, we want to expand this operation and ensure that more people go to Adana every April and have this amazing experience.
Normally, the season of orange blossoms may vary for a few days each year depending on the climate, but approximately corresponds to the dates of April 5-20. For this reason, we expect you to accompany us in the first week of April, when the smell of orange flowers is the most intense. Of course, I also recommend you not to do just a 1-day program. In the relevant section of this site, "What to do in Adana?" I will try to give you detailed information on this subject.