Words of appreciation

For the Interpreter

Rebecca Harms, President of the Greens/EFA in the European Parliament

Mrs Balkan has provided excellent Turkish-English interpretation for one of my conferences and a delegation meeting. Beyond her language competences I have appreciated her interpersonal skills which have meaningfully facilitated the communication with Turkish guests and partners.

Dr. Renate Sommer, Member of the European Parliament

As Member of the European Parliament I worked with Ms. Balkan two times as an interpreter from English to Turkish and vice versa. I was impressed that Ms Balkan made an excellent job even with the translation of difficult terms. Therefore I can only recommend her as excellent interpreter.

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Ece Göztepe Çelebi, Dean of the Faculty of Law at Bilkent University

Başak Balkan served as a Turkish-English and English-Turkish interpreter during the delegation trip organized by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Brussels and Berlin, addressing the European Union and Council of Europe bodies, civil society organizations, and the Federal German Parliament from November 13-19, 2022.

Despite the diversity of professions among the delegation members (lawyers, politicians, social service experts, local government officials, etc.) and the breadth of topics, under the overarching theme of "Women's movement in Turkey and the Istanbul Convention," she conveyed the concepts and core elements of the subject with exceptional clarity, acting as a true linguistic and contextual bridge without leaving any room for doubt.

Additionally, through her friendly relations with the delegation members, she imparted significant information regarding the institutions involved, contributing to a better understanding of the processes.

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Helen Osman, President of Signis (World Catholic Association of Communicators)

Ms. Balkan's sensitivity to the nuances of personal relationships in the work environment was a great asset to our international organization during an important time of transition and growth. I appreciated her understanding that the best way to serve her client was not only to interpret, but also to encourage dialogue and interaction.

Kemal Ege Gürkan, Associate Project Officer at International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) ​

We worked together with Başak Balkan for ICMPD's study visit to Belgian Migration Institutions (May 2018) where she acted as trilingual interpreter (tr-fr-en) for the group of Turkish Migration Experts. We were extremely satisfied with her interpretation skills as well as her familiarity with the migration context. Unlike other experiences, we were quite lucky with our interpreter choice for an abroad mission this time!

Agnese Duranti, Operations & Project Manager at Alfabeta

I have worked with Ms Basak on several online meetings on behalf of ETF (European Training Foundation), for which she provided excellent remote simultaneous interpreting services for the Turkish language, even in complex contexts with multiple booths, proving to be an extremely reliable, accurate and professional resource. I was very satisfied with her work and look forward to continuing to collaborate with her on new projects.

Lore Dequidt, Project manager at No Problem!

It's a mere pleasure to work with Başak. She is a reliable interpreter with an eye for detail and who will always give her all to help you the best way she can with every Turkish/French/English interpreting project. She is a true professional.

Theo Byl, Magistrate, FOD Justitie, Belgium

I worked together with Başak Balkan during a study visit of three Turkish colleagues in Brussels. It was a 3-day study visit organised by Taiex in March 2015 on cybercrime and the freedom of expression on the internet. During several presentations about specific legal topics Başak did an excellent job. Her translations between English and Turkish were efficient and very professional. She fulfilled her ‘tasks’ with high quality and contributed without any doubt to a very successful study visit for the Turkish colleagues.

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Sneha Francis, Project Lead at Arbolus

Ms. Balkan worked with us as one of the accomplished Turkish Simultaneous Interpreters and was extremely good at her work and her contribution helped us make the event for Castrol a big success!

Maria Blagojevic, Conference Interpreter

I have worked with Başak on several occasions where I depended on her retour into English. Both her professionalism and a very good debit were present throughout each conference we worked at. She a friendly, client and results oriented interpreter and it was a pleasure to be part of the same team.

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For the Translator

Hugh Jefferson Turner, Lecturer, İstanbul Şehir University

Working with Ms. Balkan was a true pleasure. She was our translator for a special issue of a journal dedicated to Ottoman print culture, translating scholarly articles on the subject into English for a Western readership. Translating material on such an esoteric subject is no easy task, and I've been on a number of similar projects that have been hampered by translators who produce garbled work or even disappear without word midway through a project. But she was competent, quick to respond to our emails, and conscientious about her deadlines. She coordinated closely with the other team members, producing accurate, lucid translations that adhered to our house style, thereby greatly lightening her editors' workload and speeding the project along. I would happily work with her again, and I can confidently recommend her to anyone in need of a Turkish-English translator.

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Joann PHELPS, CEO & Language Consultant at Luxe-Translations

I have had the pleasure of working with Basak Balkan for the past ten years. Not only is she professional, accurate and always on time, she is also very kind and ready to help out in an instant. Our final clients have only words of praise for her! She truly captures the very essence of the texts she translates/adapts. I highly recommend her!

Ana Pérez Ramírez, Project Manager - Sémantis

Başak collaborated with us on technical translations in the automotive and cosmetic sectors. She is very responsive, meets deadlines, and we have never received negative feedback from clients about her translations.

Laurent van der Straten, Publisher

A talented translator whom I recommend. Efficiency and speed.

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Zeynep Karapars, PhD, User Experience Design, Markafoni

For our company, Başak translated a research report on e-commerce from Turkish to English. She asked questions regarding the writing style and logic of arguments and offered better alternatives in the original language. In the end, we got a very good translation AND an improved version of the original report! On top of everything, she did this work in a very short time. Thank you Başak.

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Prof. Dr. İhsan Şerif Kaymaz, Gazi University Faculty of Arts, Department of History

I consider myself proficient in English. However, being proficient in a language is not sufficient for publishing a scientific article in an international journal or presenting a book to the attention of experts who speak that language as their mother tongue. It is essential to seek support from a competent expert who is proficient in both languages. After extensive research, I was fortunate to find Başak Balkan. Thanks to her, I have published 5-6 scientific articles in some significant international journals. She is undoubtedly one of the best in this field.

Agnes Meilhac, Founder of Beautyterm - Beautélogie LLC

​Basak is a great translator with a lot of energy and verve. She has extensive resources and skills to take care of all types of projects. Always on time, she is an absolute pleasure to work with and her translations are carefully crafted and always in harmony with the spirt of the source material.