Texas Education Agency
Open-Enrollment Charter School Applicant
Biographical Affidavit Annual Governance Reporting
Form for Open-Enrollment Charter Schools

Sponsoring Entity & Proposed Charter School:
COSMOS FOUNDATION ... Harmony Science Academy
Name:  Ali Yavuz Zeybek
Date & Place of Birth:  Nov. 25, 1959, Balikesir
[NOTE:  Balıkesir is a province in midwestern Turkey]

Business Address:  7611 Vickijohn, Houston, TX 77071
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Cosmos Foundation, Inc. (Texas) - Q:  Who is Cosmos board of directors President Ali Yavuz Zeybek?
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April  2011
Joe Straus
Ken Paxton
actual
expenditures, all
funds
Wendy
Davis (SD
# 10)
Aledo ISD  
Arlington ISD  
Birdville ISD
Burleson ISD
 
Carroll ISD  
Castleberry ISD  
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ISD
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Godley ISD  
Grapevine-Colleyville
ISD  
Hurst-Euless-Bedford
ISD  
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Lake Worth
ISD  
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$  15,773
$    8,668
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$  18,014
$  11,790
$    8,908
$  13,063
$  14,527
$  14,446
$  10,884
$  25,709
$  11,255
$    9,013
$  11,424
$    9,150
$ 13,056
$ 10,474
$    9,496
LINKS
Information supplied by Cosmos  
to TEA re Ali Yavuz Zeybek
So, what are Ali Yavuz Zeybek's
qualifications for overseeing
schoolchildren & taxpayer dollars?
Here's Ali Yavuz Zeybek giving a 2007 talk in Canada, subject:
Contemporary Implications of Mevlana (Rumi):   
In the case of Gulen Movement
Information re Cosmos Foundation
president  (2000) Ali Yavuz Zeybek
on Cosmos website
None* -- not even his name, title or term of office;
there is no listing of current or former board members.
In the absence of any information supplied to TEA or
posted on the Cosmos Foundation, Inc. website, the next
place to go looking for information about Ali is the State
Board for Educator Certification.  

We did.  As of April 3, 2011, there is no "Ali Zebek" or "Ali
Yavuz Zebek" listed at SBEC.

So we kept looking.  
Who is Ali Yavuz Zeybek
& where on Earth is he now?   
Griffith, David A., Ali Yavuz Zeybek and
Matthew O'Brien; "Knowledge Transfer as a
Means for Relationship Development: A
Kazakhstan-Foreign International Joint
Venture Illustration."   Journal of International
Marketing (2001).
1
2
3
4
5
By fiscal year 2006 Ali was no longer listed on
Cosmos Foundation, Inc. IRS form 990s.

So we we tried the World Wide Web.

Here's a 2001 reference to a paper Ali co-authored but
it talks about Kazakhstan, not Cosmos or Harmony
charter schools:
This is the quickly growing taxpayer-funded edu-empire of charter schools
that Ali Yavuz Zeybek helped establish and was president of at least during 2000
-- and has now disappeared.  Is Ali still in Canada?  Has he returned to
Kazakhstan or to his native Turkey?
Then Ali surfaced in Canada in 2007, working at
McGill University, and delivering a talk (see colorful
large poster at right) on the Muslim poet Rumi -- with
whom Fethullah Gulen self-identifies.
Here's the link for the above poster:  
en.baybak.com/canada-celebrates-unesco-%E2%80%9Cyear-of-rumi%E2%80%9D-with-%E2%80%9Cwhirling-into-p
eace%E2%80%9D-coming-to-canada-from-konya-turkey.azr
Where is Ali Yavuz Zeybek now?

There are folks with that name with records in the
following states:  Indiana, Iowa, Oklahoma, and  
Texas (Austin).

Or has Ali returned to Kazakhstan -- or even his native
Turkey?  One more reason why SB 597 & HB 1437
need to include proof of US citizenship.  If it's required
of elected school trustees it should be required of
appointed charter trustees.
April 3, 2011 update:  Even though Ali clearly lists
7611 Vickijohn as his business address on the TEA
form, it turns out to be a single-family residence --
owned now by  current Cosmos Foundation, Inc.
Texas superintendent Soner Tarim.
Gee, doesn't this look more like
a home than HQ for a multi-million dollar
education business?
From Peyton:  When I inserted my own message onto
Borat's sign, I had no idea that one of the Cosmos
Foundation, Inc. board members had actually come
from Borat's country, Kazakhstan.  In fact, Ali Yavuz
Zeybek worked in KZ until August 1999 and by
January 2000 -- 4 months later -- applied to the State
of Texas for permission to open up a charter school.