Mehmet Ali İrtemçelik

Mehmet Ali İrtemçelik (2006)

Mehmet Ali İrtemçelik (born March 17, 1950 in Istanbul ) is a Turkish diplomat and politician.

Diplomatic career

He attended Galatasaray High School and Bosphorus University in Istanbul. He joined the diplomatic service on March 4, 1975 and served 1977–1980 as assistant consul in the Turkish Consulate General in Chicago , 1980–1982 as second attaché and leading attaché in the Turkish embassy in Kabul , 1982–1984 as chairman of the department of the Bureau for Multilateral Relations in the Turkish Foreign Ministry, 1984–198 as attaché and director in the Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations, as advisor to the Foreign Minister between 1988 and 1991 (from 1989 with the title of Ambassador) and in 1991 as advisor to the Prime Minister. He became the youngest ambassador in the history of the republic when he was awarded the title in 1989 at the age of 39.

He was the Turkish ambassador in the Jordanian capital Amman between November 29, 1991 and July 31, 1995 , and in the Bulgarian capital Sofia between July 31, 1995 and November 3, 1997. After his embassy period ended, he served until on January 11, 1991 as Assistant Director in the Office for Bilaterate Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Politician and return to diplomatic service

In the election on April 18, 1999 , he was elected as the leading head of the list of the Motherland Party ( Turkish Anavatan Partisi , ANAP) in the third constituency of Istanbul (includes the entire Asian part of the city) as a member of parliament. Between May 27, 1999 and May 6, 2000 he was Minister of State for Relations with the European Union and Human Rights Issues and at the same time as government spokesman under the DSP- led government of Bülent Ecevit . As a member of parliament, he served in the Committee on Foreign Relations and in the Turkish delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly in the Council of Europe . After falling out with his former high school classmate and current party leader Mesut Yılmaz and accusing Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit of changing the constitution before the 2000 presidential election, he resigned on May 6, 2000 and became an independent member of parliament. He did not run for the 2002 election and returned to the diplomatic service on October 16, 2003 when he was appointed Turkish ambassador to Germany by the Erdoğan government . He stayed that way until March 18, 2008 and currently works in the Foreign Ministry.

He is fluent in French (through the French-speaking Galatasaray School) and English (through the Bosphorus University). He is married and has three children.

Web links

• Biography of Mehmet Ali İrtemçelik on the website of the Turkish Embassy Berlin

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://hurarsiv.hurriyet.com.tr/goster/haber.aspx?id=74683 From the archives of Turkish daily Hürriyet
2. ↑ http://hurarsiv.hurriyet.com.tr/goster/haber.aspx?id=145264 From the archives of Turkish daily Hürriyet