\textsc{Welcome}  to Antalya Algebra Days.
This year's meeting, the ninth meeting in the series, is dedicated to the
       great mathematician 
and good friend Brian Hartley.   Each of us has a reason to
attend this year's conference. Some of us were Hartley's students;
some, his friends; some know him from his papers. 
When I first sent out invitations to attend and
contribute to this conference, everybody accepted within two days.
This is a sign of the of the 
friendship Hartley has kept in our  hearts after thirteen years without
him.  I thank everybody who has come, especially those who have
travelled long distances. I understand and 
appreciate your support for this conference. 

             I also  would like to thank heartily  my colleagues and
             friends Ali Nesin, Alev Topuzo\u glu and  Sinan Sert\"oz for
             allowing me to invite more speakers in group theory this
             year.  

            I would like to thank the indispensible couple
            of organizers Ay\c se Berkman and David  Pierce:
            without their constant support my job would have been
            difficult.  We are indebted to Otto Kegel, Alexandre
            Zalesskii and  Victor Mazurov for their scientific
            guidence and help  in the  organization of this
            conference. They were with us whenever we needed help.
            Finally  we are deeply grateful to all the scientific
            committee members  for their support. 

Our special thanks go to Tamer Ko\c c and \c S\"ukran Demir of Tivrona
Tours, who have met all of our requests smilingly.

 I hope you enjoy the conference.

\mbox{}\hfill Mahmut Kuzucuo\u glu   
							      
