Former EU lawmaker appointed as Turkey’s ambassador to Vienna

ANKARA

Ozan Ceyhun, a former German-Turkish European Parliament MP, has been appointed as Turkey’s ambassador to Austria.

His assignment decision, by the signature of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was published in the Official Gazette on Feb. 21.

He was an MP at the European Parliament from the German Social Democrat Party (SPD). Ceyhun joined the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) ranks in 2015.

Ceyhun is the last assignment among non-career ambassadors. The last high-profile non-career appointment was Egemen Bağış, the former minister of EU affairs, to Turkey’s embassy in Prague.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s press advisor Lütfullah Göktaş was appointed as Turkey’s new ambassador to the Vatican last year.

Merve Kavakçı, who was banned from parliament in 1999 after she joined an oath ceremony in parliament wearing a headscarf following her election as a lawmaker from now-defunct Virtue Party (FP), had also been appointed as ambassador to Kuala Lumpur a few years ago.