Family minister’s sister picked as Turkish ambassador

Sevil Erkuş - ANKARA

Sister of the Family Minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya, Ayşe Sayan, will be appointed as Turkey’s ambassador to Kuwait according to a new degree of the Foreign Ministry. 

Ayşe Sayan was formed deputy undersecretary of the family ministry, yet she resigned after her sister was assigned is the minister. 

Five names are not career diplomats among the 37 ambassadors to be appointed after they receive their agréments. İrfan Neziroğlu, former undersecretary of the Turkish parliament, will be Turkey’s ambassador Khartoum, Emin Önen, advisor to the President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will be ambassador to Beijing along with former lawmaker from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Murat Mercan will also be appointed as Turkey’s ambassador to Tokyo.

Mercan was among the founding members of the AKP, and served as a term president of the parliament’s foreign affairs commission and as deputy minister of energy and natural resources. 

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), will be appointed as ambassador to Kuala Lumpur.  

Her citizenship was recently given back to her after a decision from the Council of Ministers, which was published in the Official Gazette on July 3. 

Sayan will become the second Turkish ambassodar wearing a headscarf after Kavakçı. 

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hüseyin Müftüoğlu will be appointed to Tirana. 

The list of 37 ambassadors are as follows: Serap Özcoşkun for La Paz,  Kemal Demirciler for Manama, Ersin Erçin for Seoul, Murat Mercan for Tokyo, Şebnem Cenk for Malabo, Mustafa Yurdakul for Islamabad, Ceren Yazgan for Tbilisi, Başak Türkoğlu for Valetta, Hasan Ulusoy for Sofia, Oğuzhan Ertuğrul for Kabul, Ahmet Muhtar Gün as U.N. Permanent Representative to Vienna, Süphan Erkula for Libreville, Emre Yunt for Stockholm, Levent Gümrükçü for Brussels, Süleyman Gökçe for Guatemala, Ela Görkem Gökçe for Santa Domingo, and Akif Oktay for Budapest, Gülin Dinç for Santiago, Hüseyin Müftüoğlu  for Tirana, Oya Tunga for Quito, Ece Öztürk Çil for Bogota, Asım Arar for  Vagadugu, Ali Davutoğlu for Darusselam, Cemil Miroğlu for Nairobi, İdem Akay for Vientiane, Merve Kavakçı for Kuala Lumpur, Emin Önen for Beijing,  Ayşe Sayan for Kuwait, Cengiz Fırat for Bishkek, Berin Tulun for Windhoek, Deha Erpek for Sierra Leone, Erdoğan Kök for Riyad, Hakan Kıvanç for Harare,  İrfan Neziroğlu for Khartoum, Boğaç Güldere for Kinshasa, Hüsrev Ünler for Antanarivo,  Nurdan Altuntaş Trinidad Tobago.