New deputy foreign ministers have been appointed, according to a decision published in the Official Gazette in the early hours of Friday.
The decision, approved by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, appointed Ayşe Berris Ekinci, who served as Türkiye’s Ambassador to Cuba between 2016 to 2021, Chief Foreign Ministry Adviser Nuh Yılmaz and Professor Burhanettin Duran, a columnist at Daily Sabah, as deputy foreign ministers.
Ekinci, daughter of former Ambassador Berhan Ekinci, received her high school and college education in Marseilles between 1982-1987 and completed her bachelor’s degree at the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Türkiye in 1990. She went on to earn her master’s degree from Boston College in 1992.
Ekinci’s professional career began at the Economy Department of the Banks Association of Türkiye and her foray into diplomacy was with her admission into the Turkish Foreign Ministry in 1994. After serving as branch manager and chamber head at the Directorate of Energy, Ekinci was appointed the consul-general to Marseilles in 2010.
Most notably, she served as the ambassador to Havana between November 2016 and April 2021 during which she displayed an active opposition to the U.S. sanctions against Cuba.
Duran is a graduate of political science and international relations from the esteemed Boğaziçi University and a holder of an MA and Ph.D. in political science and public administration from Bilkent University.
Having served as a lecturer at various universities, Duran earned his associate professor title in 2006 and professor title in 2013. He still teaches at Ankara Social Sciences University.
In addition to having authored countless articles on Turkish intellectual history, foreign policy, extremism, Europe, democracy and civil society, in both Turkish and English, Duran has been the head of the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA) since its foundation in 2015.
He was named a member of the Presidential Board of Security and Foreign Policies in 2018.
Yılmaz, also a columnist for SETA, pens articles on Türkiye’s new foreign policies, energy security, politics and Turkish-American relations.
Yılmaz has his bachelor’s degree in Sociology from METU and master’s degree in Graphic Design from Bilkent University. He has taught lectures on aesthetics, critical theory and Turkish literature in the United States and Canada.
Additionally, Yılmaz worked as the Washington representative of the Turkish newspaper Star and 24 Haber television network between 2006 and 2008.
Yılmaz still serves in the Cultural Studies Department of George Mason University in Washington D.C.