The Turkish Foreign Ministry has appointed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s former and current advisors and some bureaucrats as ambassadors, sparking a new debate about the professional qualifications of the country’s new diplomats, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan appointed 19 new ambassadors on Tuesday to represent Turkey’s foreign policy objectives in various countries and international organizations.
Erdoğan’s former chief press advisor Lütfullah Göktaş, also a former ambassador to the Vatican, was named ambassador to Abu Dhabi, while chief presidential advisor Yakup Caymazoğlu was assigned to Oman.
The Foreign Ministry’s Bilateral Affairs of Eastern Africa division chief Elif Çomoğlu Ülgen will be leading the Turkish Embassy in Rome, Fidan said, adding that Bilateral Affairs of Central Asia and the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) division head Gökhan Turan will be posted in Berlin.
Turkish Maarif Foundation President Birol Akgün will take over the Turkish mission in Baku.
The minister also said that Ali Murat Ersoy will be appointed to New Delhi and Ufuk Ulutaş will move from the Vatican to the Uzbek capital of Tashkent, with Emin Akseki representing Turkey in Sarajevo and Julide Kayıhan in Bangkok.
Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) are widely criticized for filling state posts with their cronies and eschewing merit-based assignments.
Following a coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016, when the Turkish government launched a purge of state institutions on the pretext of an anti-coup fight, the foreign ministry lost a large number of its personnel, who were removed from their posts through government decrees.
Former foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu revealed in October 2022, in response to a parliamentary question, that 662 ministry employees had been removed from public service since July 20, 2016, when the government declared a state of emergency.
Çavuşoğlu said the purges were carried out in line with emergency decree number 375, which concerns public servants who are determined to have links to terrorist organizations or groups or structures that are, according to the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), involved in activities that threaten national security.
The minister did not reveal how many of the purged personnel were career diplomats and how many were civil servants.
Most of the purged public servants had alleged links to the Gülen movement, which is accused by the Turkish government of masterminding the failed coup.
The movement strongly denies any involvement in the abortive putsch.Çavuşoğlu turned the ministry over to Fidan, the former head of MİT, after a new cabinet was named in June 2023.
The Turkish government has long been the target of criticism for ending merit-based appointments in state agencies, engaging in favoritism and filling state posts with its cronies.
The foreign ministry, known as the most prestigious state institution in Turkey, used to select its personnel from successful graduates of well-known universities who received the highest scores on the central state personnel exam in addition to interviews conducted by the ministry.
Now, the ministry’s diplomats frequently come under criticism due to their poor language skills, lack of professional credentials and controversial acts in diplomatic settings.