Türkiye nominates new US, UN envoys

Türkiye has nominated a new ambassador to the United States and a permanent representative to the United Nations.

As per diplomatic sources, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan conveyed the new appointments to the designated individuals through telephone on Wednesday.

Sedat Onal, who currently holds the position of permanent representative to the UN, will assume the role of Türkiye's ambassador to Washington according to the change on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Deputy Foreign Minister Ahmet Yildiz will be Türkiye’s new permanent representative to the UN in New York.

The nominations will be official when they are printed in the Official Gazette.

Who is Sedat Onal?

Sedat Onal is a graduate of international relations at Ankara University.

Onal had represented Ankara in New York from 1998 to 2002 while serving as a vice consul and consul at the Consulate General. He then assumed the role of Counselor at the Embassy of Türkiye in Tehran from 2002 to 2005.

Following his service there, he held various positions, including department head at the Directorate General for the Middle East, Consul General in Vienna and Deputy Director General for the Middle East.

From July 2012 to November 2016, he served as ambassador to Amman. He then assumed the role of Directorate General as well as Deputy Undersecretary for North Africa and the Middle East, and became deputy minister from 2018 to 2023.

Onal has been Türkiye's permanent representative to the UN in New York since February 2023.

New UN representative

Ahmet Yildiz earned his undergraduate degree in international relations from Ankara University.

He held several positions in the government as First Class Consul at Türkiye's Consulate General in Mosul from December 2009 to November 2011 and then as ambassador to Sarajevo from November 2011 to July 2014.

Subsequently, he became a senior diplomatic adviser to the prime minister in 2014 before transitioning to a senior diplomatic adviser to the president after the presidential elections.

Yildiz then served as deputy foreign minister from 2016 to April 2018.

In 2018, he was elected to parliament for the AK Party and worked as the head of the Turkish Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and a member of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye and NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

Yildiz began serving as deputy foreign minister again on June 22, 2023.