The history of the Turkish Colon and Rectum Surgery foundation has been written by our honorary president Prof. Dr. Kemal Alemdaroğlu. Please note that our executive board members have been listed according to dates.

In October 1981 after the conference of The American Colleague of Surgery at San Francisco, I conducted research as a visiting professor at Cleveland Clinic, New York Hospital and Cornell Medical Center for three months and returned back to my country to practice what I have learned (stapler anastomosis and partial mastectomy).

The development of colorectal surgery as a separate department in Cleveland Clinic and gaining an influential place in the world has pushed us to adopt a much more careful approach towards colon and rectum surgery and as a result lead us to organize The first National Proctology Conference at Marmaris Lidya Hotel, between 12 and16th of September, under the presidency of my deceased Prof. Dr. Adnan Salepçioğlu, general surgery head of department at Cerrahpaşa faculty of medicine. Instructors of our department, instructors of İstanbul University faculty of medicine, department of general and their head of department Prof Dr. Kaya Çilingiroğlu, commander of Gulhane Military Medical Academy and their dean, major general Necati Kölan, Prof. Dr. Ercüment Gürel from Ankara University Faculty of Medicine, Department of General Surgery , Ege University Faculty of Medicine, Department Of General Surgery, 9 Eylül University Faculty of Medicine, Department of General Surgery, Bursa Uludağ University Faculty of Medicine, Department of General Surgery, Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine, Department of General Surgery, Adana Çukurova University Faculty of Medicine, Department of General Surgery, Diyarbakır Dicle University Faculty of Medicine, Department of General Surgery, Kayseri Erciyes University Faculty of Medicine, Department of General Surgery, Erzurum Atatürk University Faculty of Medicine, Department of General Surgery, Konya Selçuk University Faculty of Medicine, Department of General Surgery members together with Dr. Kevin Morrissey from New York University, USA and A.E. MacKinnon from England have attended and supported us at our first conference. During the closing session of our four-day conference which included various scientific, cultural, and social events, we decided to organize this conference every two years. Particularly Prof. Dr. Adnan Salepçioğlu, Prof. Dr. Yılmaz Sanaç, Prof. Dr. Akgün Hiçsönmez, Prof. Dr. Kaya Çilingiroğlu, Prof. Dr. Necati Kölan, Prof. Dr. Sabri Devecioğlu, Prof. Dr. Ercüment Gürel, Prof. Dr. Asım Duman, Prof. Dr. Yaşar Yeşilkaya and Prof. Dr. Cemalettin Topuzlu’s support and contribution have shed light and oriented us to this future.

In 1984 after the decision made to hold the National Surgical Conference at Istanbul, It was thought that having the proctology conference in 1986 would be a better idea and thus the second proctology conference took place between 15 and 18th of September 1986, at Datça. Surgeons from university, military, public, social security institutions and private hospitals of all regions of Turkey have participated to our conference. Also K. Morrissey from New York Hospital and H.N. Nixon from England have attended to our conference.

In September between the 26 and 29th, 1988 Third National Colon and Rectum Surgery conference took place in Marmaris. Our conference, which hosted H. Groitl from Germany and R. Springall from England, has also been a friendly gathering for many of our colleagues who are particularly interested colon surgery. At the end of the meeting with the suggestion of many colleagues, initiatives to establish a foundation were taken and prior to our conference in 1990 our foundation was established, in addition to this our scientific journal named “colon and rectum diseases” edited by Prof. Dr. Kemal Alemdaroğlu started to be published this year and it is published four times each year ever since.

As the Colon and Rectum Surgery Foundation we held our first conference, The fourth Colon And Rectum Surgery conference on September 10 to 14th in 1990 at Kemer Antalya. The most important part of this conference, to which Buess from Germany and D. Rosin from England participated, was that while D. Rosin presented his knowledge and experiences on the newly practiced laparoscopic cholecystectomy, Buess announced that he had designed equipment for laparoscopic surgery for a medical equipment firm and that they have regular courses on laparoscopic cholecystectomy in their clinics. In addition to these announcements Buess also presented the transanal endoscopic microsurgery (TEM) method in half closed system. Therefore, our conference has been the first conference in which presentations and discussions on laparoscopic surgery were made and the innovation of our century in the field of surgical methods has opened new perspectives for most of our colleagues.

Our fifth Colon and Rectum Surgery Conference was realized on September 13 to 16th, 1993 at Girne, Cyprus. The conference where N.Williams and D.Rosin from England, B. Gathright and K.Morrissey from USA and N. S. Shang from Singapore attended was scientifically, socially and culturally very rich. Participation of TRNC president Mr. Rauf Denktaş to our cocktail gave particular importance to our conference.

As we were having our sixth National Colon and Rectum Surgery conference at Belek-Antalya on September 10-14th 1995, the name of our foundation changed into “Turkish Colon and Rectum Surgery Foundation” with the decree of the council of ministers. MRB. Keighley and D. Rosin from England, V.W. Fazio, M. J Hershman, R.R. Dozois, C.I. Filipi, R.Shaker, N.S. Ambrose, K. Bach, G. Rodrigues from USA and V. Schumpelick as well as M. Mentges have attended to our conference to have discussions with our colleagues. In addition to this for the first time we have had a special session for surgical nurses, where discussions on scientific and social topics took place.

The seventh National Colon and Rectum Surgery conference took place in Kemer-Antalya, between 10 to 13th of September 1997. M.J. Hershman, V.W. Fazio, R.R Dozois and R.J. Fitzgibbons from USA, R. Phillips and D. Rosin from England, V. Schumpelick and B. Mentges from Germany have attended to conference giving us an opportunity to discuss on the contemporary issues on colon surgery.

8th National Colon and Rectum Surgery conference was realized at Kemer- Antalya in 1999 between 13 to 16th of September. J. Terblanche from south Africa. W. Milsom, P.Goldenberg, K. Morrissey, R. Dozois from the USA, G. Ekelund from Sweden, L. Bresler and J.M. Muller from Germany have participated to the conference and had elaborate discussions on the problems of colon surgery.

9th National Colon and Rectum Surgery conference was organized in partnership with the Mediterranean Society of Coloproctology, in 2001 between 9 to 13th of September at Kemer-Antalya. V.W. Fazio, J. Milsom, D.A. Rothenberger, J.A. Dipalma and I.T. Khubchandani from the USA, A. Shafik and O.El Sibai from eygpt, D.Rosin form England, M. Pescatori, S. Larach and A. Amato from Italy, G.Ekelund from Sweden, G. Buess and V. Schumpelick from Germany have attended our scientifically high leveled conference and our secretary general Prof. Dr. Ergun Erdoğan has been elected as the secretary general of the Mediterranean Society of Coloproctology.

10th National Colon and Rectum Surgery conference took place between 7 to 11th of September 2003 at Kemer -Antalya. G. Buess and V. Schumpelick from Germany; İ.T. Khubchandani and F.

Remzi from USA; N. Habubi from England, İ.G.Karaitianos from Greece, Z. Krivokapic from Serbia; A.M.Hussein and M. Farid from Egypt, A. Amato from Italy have attended to our conference and discussed the colon and rectum related diseases as well as the contemporary treatment methods with our colleagues.

2006 World Conference: XXI. Biennial Conference of the International Society of University Colon and Rectal Surgeons (ISUCRS) was organized between 25 to 28th of June 2006 at İstanbul Hilton Hotel convention center under the precedency of Prof. Dr. Kemal Alemdaroğlu and general directorate Prof. Dr. Indru Khubchandani. Valuable and famous surgeons all around the world have attended to the world conference which was held for the first time in our country on the field of general surgery. Famous Surgeons such as R. Bergamaschi, R. Madoff, P. Caushaj, M. Pescatori, C. Baeten, M.T. Fawcett, R. Phillips, Z. Krivokapic, M. Takano, A.A. Safik, A. Safik, P.Goldberg, A.Habr Gama, J. Church, R. Neto, J. Milsom, F.S. Choen, A. Balogh, F. Remzi, E.Tiret, M.Rabau, JP.Arnaud, L. Pahlman, I.Lavery, T.Muto, V.Fazio, R.Beart, S. Larach, G. Ekelund who have preciously attended our conference have participated in panels and discussions on contemporary colon and rectum related issues.

11th National Colon and Rectum Surgery conference has taken place between 26 and 30th of August 2007 at Bodrum. R.Beart, V. Fazio, R.Bergamaschi, F. Remzi, I.T. Kubchandani and J.W. Milsom from USA, R. Phillips and N. Habubi England, E. Tiret from France, Van de Velde from Belgium have participated to our conference. Our conference was very powerful in scientific and social terms. The most important developments of this conference for our country was Robert Beats suggestion of providing a scholarship (30.000 US dollars per year) for one of our young surgeons elected by the executive board of the foundation to conduct research at his university. As the Executive board of the foundation, among the applicants, we have elected Dr. Bilgi Baca from Cerrahpaşa faculty of medicine, department of general surgery. I believe that our friend’s success and the positive impression she leaves upon others will create sustainability for this scholarship.

Our foundation has published books on “Colon, Rectum and Anal Region Diseases” (Edts: Kemal Alemdaroğlu, Tarık Akçal ve Dursun Buğra, 2004) and “Hemorrhoid Diseases and Its Treatment” (Edts: Adil Baykan, Mehmet Füzün ve Abdullah Zorluoğlu, 2007) for our young colleagues.

From 1990 and onward, as I have stated before, we have started to issue our journal called “Colon and Rectum Diseases” 4 times every year. At Bursa, Denizli, Diyarbakır, Erzurum, Trabzon, Samsun and Gaziantep provinces we came together with surgeon of that region and organized meetings.

In last few years, In the National Surgical Conferences, the colorectal section is organized by our foundation.

In 2007, during the general assembly of our foundation I passed over my duties as an executive to our younger friends, after I briefly presented the activities, we have conducted for the last 25 years.

Prof. Dr. Kemal ALEMDAROĞLU