The Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination held the first seminar in the 2012-2013 Crisis Diplomacy Lunch Seminar Series on Thursday, October 11 at 12:00 p.m. in the library of Prospect House. Ambassador Ertuğrul Apakan, Permanent Representative of Turkey to the United Nations, was the featured speaker. 

Ertuğrul Apakan is Permanent Representative of Turkey to the United Nations. He was appointed Ambassador of Turkey to the United Nations on August 27, 2009. Apakan served as the Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey from December 2006 until August 2009, and as Deputy Under-Secretary for Bilateral Political Affairs from 2004 to 2006. From 2000 until that point, he was Director General for Bilateral Political Affairs and Maritime Affairs and Aviation.

Having joined the Foreign Ministry in 1971, Apakan held increasingly responsible positions, including as the Second Secretary in the General Directorate of Political Affairs (1975), Head of Section in the Department of Middle East and Africa (1980), and Head of the Department of Bilateral Economic Relations (1987). He also served overseas as Second Secretary at the embassy in Vienna (1975), First Secretary in Kuwait (1978) and Counsellor of the Permanent Mission to the United Nations Geneva Office (1982). In 1992, he was appointed Deputy Director General for Cyprus and Greece in the Foreign Ministry, and in 1996 the Turkish Government appointed him ambassador in northern Cyprus.

Apakan received a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Ankara University and earned a master’s degree in economics at the Aegean University in Izmir, Turkey, in 1970.