Turkish envoy rescued from ISIL appointed as ambassador to Dushanbe

ANKARA

Öztürk Yılmaz, the former Turkish consul general to Mosul, who was taken hostage last year along with 48 others by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants for 101 days, has been appointed as an ambassador to Tajikistan’s capital of Dushanbe.

ISIL militants stormed the consulate on June 11, 2014, taking hostages who were finally freed on Sept. 20, 2014, as a result of a supposed swap deal that has not been denied by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Five new female ambassadors will represent Turkey in foreign countries, according to the same appointment decree issued on April 10 by the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

According to the decree, Sarajevo Embassy Undersecretary Yasemin Eralp has been appointed as ambassador to the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam, Odessa Consul General Hatice Nur Sagman has become ambassador to the Guinean capital of Conakry and Geneva Consul General Nurdan Bayraktar Golder has been posted as envoy to the Gabonese capital of Libreville.

Also, Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Arms Control and Disarmament Deputy Director General Kezban Nilvana Darama has been appointed Turkey’s ambassador in Minsk, while Hayriye Kumaşçıoğlu, deputy director general for Central Asia and the Caucasus at the Foreign Ministry, has become the envoy to Tallinn.

The decree also replaces ambassadors to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Australia, Sri Lanka, Montenegro, Kosovo, Indonesia, Algeria, Lebanon, Turkmenistan and Malta.

Turkey will also send new ambassadors to Nigeria, Djibouti, Chad, Burkina Faso, Saudi Arabia, Cameroon and Guatemala.