 leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has appointed 10 people, some of whom are politicians in his party who never served at the foreign ministry, as ambassadors.){kind=link}
Turkish President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has appointed 10 people, some of whom are politicians in his party who never served at the foreign ministry, as ambassadors.
Erdoğan’s decision to appoint ambassadors to Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, North Macedonia, Slovakia, Portugal, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Somalia, Chad and The Gambia was published in the Official Gazette on Friday.
The newly named ambassadors include former AKP lawmaker and deputy prime minister Emrullah İşler (Saudi Arabia) and Ahmet Misbah Demircan (Tunisia), a former deputy minister and district mayor in İstanbul from the AKP.
Former AKP lawmaker and current rector of the İzmir-based 9 Eylül University Nükhet Hotar, who came to public attention due to claims of favoritism and corruption at the university, was also named an ambassador. She was appointed Turkey’s special representative to the Union for the Mediterranean, an intergovernmental organization of 43 member states from Europe and the Mediterranean Basin.
The AKP and Erdoğan are harshly criticized for filling state posts with their cronies and disregarding merit-based assignments.
Namık Tan, Turkey’s former ambassador to the United States and current İstanbul lawmaker from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), criticized the appointments, comparing diplomatic careers in the “old Turkey” with those in the “new Turkey,” referring to AKP rule.
Tan said people used to have to take the foreign ministry exam, go through training at the academy, serve at various posts, take the first secretary exam and become a deputy director general, reaching the rank of ambassador only after some 25 years.
“A diplomatic career in the new Turkey can be summarized as follows: 1- Party membership-member of parliament-ambassador or 2- Proximity to the palace [Erdoğan]-rector/deputy minister-ambassador,” he said.
Eski Türkiye’de diplomat kariyeri özetle şöyleydi:
Dışişleri sınavı-Akademi-Rotasyon tayini-Başkatiplik sınavı-basamak basamak yetki ve sorumluluk-genel müdür yardımcılığı-en az 25 yılın sonunda BüyükelçiYeni Türkiye’de diplomat kariyeri özetle şöyle:
1- Parti…— Namık Tan (@NamikTan) February 16, 2024
According to a report by the T24 news website on Friday, the recent appointments do not include an ambassador for Turkey’s NATO ally, the United States, contrary to expectations.
Turkey has not had an ambassador in the US since Murat Mercan, a founding member of the AKP, former MP and deputy minister, who was appointed on March 15, 2021, retired on January 12.
A report by the Brussels-based Institute for Diplomacy and Economy (INSTITUDE) on the 122 ambassadors serving at Turkish embassies revealed in 2022 that they lack basic competence in some major languages.
According to the report, their language skills are “nowhere near to the satisfactory level” to understand even Turkey’s close neighbors and are partly responsible for the failures of the country’s foreign policy.
The report showed that only 48 of 122 Turkish ambassadors can speak at least one of the official languages of the countries they are posted to, with the language skills of Turkey’s diplomats being “staggeringly insufficient” compared to the UK, the US, Germany, France and Russia.