I fly to Istanbul rather than home to Ankara, to give the opening speech at a conference on extremism, run by the prestigious Bahcesehir University. We've been working with them for over a year now, running workshops, seminars and an accompanying website to explore how to build effective platforms to oppose the actions of violent extremists, and how to communicate in a way that better counters the terrorist's narrative. It's been controversial stuff, and none of it more so than a survey into Turkish attitudes towards extremism - the first Turkey-wide study of its kind. The findings absorb us for the whole morning. At lunch, 20 journalists show up for a press conference to ask us more - not bad for a sunny Saturday.

In the afternoon, TV journalist and political activist Ayse Bohurler presents her latest, Embassy-sponsored TV documentary, which explores the lives of Muslim women living in Britain. We decided to work with her after seeing similar documentaries she had done on other countries. But those had all been in the Muslim world. This is the first that's looked at the experiences of female Muslims living in the West. We hope it will dispel some of the myths that Muslims in the Middle East have about the lives of Muslims in the West. I fly back late to Ankara, for Sunday with the family.

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