Turkish ambassador to Switzerland Gücük dies after long illness

Gücük died in Turkey, according to the statement that did not provide any information about the nature of the illness.        

“We are deeply saddened to announce the death of our dear ambassador, Mr. Mehmet Gucuk,” the statement said. 

“We wish Allah’s mercy on our dear ambassador, a person whom we looked up to with his vast fund of knowledge, friendliness and humility, and offer our condolences to his grieving family, our people, our Foreign Ministry community and the Turkish people of Switzerland,” it said.

Gücük was receiving medical treatment in Turkey for the past three months while Volkan Karagöz assumed the ambassadorial duties in Switzerland.

Gücük’s funeral will be held on Aug. 3 at the Güllük Mosque in the southwestern district of Bodrum.      
 
Gücük was born in Ankara in 1955 and graduated with a master’s degree in 1978 from the Bosphorus University Faculty of Administrative Sciences and Political Science.        

He served as a consul in the Turkish Consulate General in Berlin between 1983 and 1987 and led the EU Department in Ankara between 1993 and 1995.        

Between 1995 and 1999, he served as a first counselor in Washington D.C. before being serving as ambassador to Bulgaria from 2005 to 2010.

Gücük had been Turkey’s ambassador to Switzerland since 2014.