EU ambassador to Turkey leaves Ankara for offer from France’s Hollande

ANKARA

Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, the head of the Delegation of the European Union to Turkey, speaking at a conference. AA photo

In a surprise move, Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, the head of the Delegation of the European Union to Turkey, is set to leave Ankara for a new post offered by French President Francois Hollande.

The EU envoy, also French and known to be a close friend of Hollande’s, is expected to be appointed as France’s new ambassador to Moscow. Ripert has been EU representative to Turkey since January 2012 and will be leaving Turkey in October, earlier than expected.

From 2009 to 2011, he was the U.N.’s Special Envoy for Assistance to Pakistan. Prior to this, from 2007 to 2009, he was the Permanent Representative of France to the U.N. in New York. Ripert was France’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva from 2005 to 2007, as well as the French ambassador to Greece from 2000 to 2003.