Bünyamin Tekin
Turkey’s career diplomats helped shape and carry out President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s foreign policy rather than serving as an institutional counterweight to his government, a foreign policy researcher said following Ankara’s decision to replace political appointees in ambassadorial positions in Iran, Oman, Jordan and Kuwait with professional diplomats.
Former Turkish diplomat Haşim Tekineş, a policy analyst at the Institute for Diplomacy and Economy (InstituDE), told Turkish Minute that the appointments should not be viewed as the government turning to a professional diplomatic corps after years of sidelining it, arguing that career officials had long worked with Erdoğan and played leading roles in some of his government’s most disputed policies.
His comments come amid discussion that the Iran war, attacks on Gulf countries and the crisis around the Strait of Hormuz have forced Ankara to put diplomats with experience and institutional knowledge in ambassadorial posts at the center of its regional response.
NEW: Turkey has replaced political appointees with career diplomats in several critical Middle Eastern postings, including Tehran and key Gulf capitals, as Ankara weathers the fallout from the Iran war. https://t.co/zVvTQbjOap
— Ezgi Akın (@ezgi_akin) June 9, 2026
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan informed diplomats on Tuesday of a new round of assignments covering Tehran, Muscat, Amman, Kuwait City, Doha, Manama and other capitals.
Ahmet Aydın Doğan, a career diplomat who previously served as Turkey’s ambassador to Libya and Morocco, was named to replace Persian literature professor Hicabi Kırlangıç in Tehran.
Hüseyin Ergani, the Foreign Ministry official responsible for relations with Iran, will replace academic Muhammet Hekimoğlu in Muscat, while Hakan Karaçay, a career diplomat responsible for Middle East bilateral affairs, will replace former presidential adviser Yakup Caymazoğlu in Amman.
Career diplomat Can Oğuz will replace former presidential adviser Tuba Nur Sönmez in Kuwait City.
The shift remains limited since political appointees will continue to lead other Gulf missions.
Caymazoğlu is moving from Amman to Doha, while presidential culture and arts adviser Necati Sancaktutan has been named ambassador to Bahrain.
The assignments were described as a partial return to career diplomacy at a time when Turkey is trying to maintain relations with Iran while condemning Tehran’s attacks on Gulf countries and taking part in efforts to end the fighting.
Tekineş, however, said the conventional image of professional diplomats correcting or restraining a populist government does not fit Turkey.
“The classic conflict between a populist government and career diplomats that occurred in the United States and elsewhere did not occur in Turkey,” he said.
“Whether it was Syria policy, the Blue Homeland doctrine, the blacklisting of opponents abroad or perhaps even abductions, the career diplomats called ‘monşers’ took the lead on the government’s main foreign policy issues,” Tekineş said.
The Blue Homeland doctrine asserts broad Turkish maritime claims in the eastern Mediterranean and has contributed to disputes with Greece and Cyprus.
The term “monşer,” derived from the French phrase “mon cher,” was used by Erdoğan to depict diplomats as members of a Western-oriented elite removed from the values of Turkish society.
“There was never any serious institutional resistance to the government’s foreign policy,” he added. “On the contrary, they became the makers and implementers of these policies.”
Tekineş said Erdoğan’s public dispute over “monşers” was directed at retired diplomats who criticized his policies rather than officials serving in the Foreign Ministry.
“The ‘monşer’ debate took place between Erdoğan and retired diplomats, not those who were still serving,” he said. “Opposition from career diplomats generally emerged after retirement.”
Tekineş said relations between the government and serving diplomats remained positive and that Erdoğan listened to their assessments and recommendations.
He said this cooperation helped explain why the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government made limited changes to the Foreign Ministry’s institutional structure until Fidan became foreign minister in 2023.
Tekineş made the same argument in a 2025 study published in the Mediterranean Politics academic journal, finding that Turkish career diplomats primarily implemented government policy, sometimes helped shape it and rarely resisted it.
The relationship differs from a model seen in other countries where populist leaders portray career officials as an unelected establishment seeking to obstruct the will of the voters.
In the United States President Donald Trump has reduced the role of the career Foreign Service while relying on political allies and personal envoys to conduct diplomacy.
Only about 9 percent of Trump’s ambassadorial appointees during his second term were career diplomats, compared with between 57 and 74 percent under US administrations over the previous five decades, Reuters reported in May.
More than 100 US ambassadorial posts were vacant, about 30 ambassadors had been recalled and thousands of State Department employees had left through dismissals or buyouts, according to Reuters.
Trump has also assigned negotiations over Iran, Ukraine and Gaza to personal envoys including real estate developer Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, at times bypassing career diplomats and embassies.
The Trump administration says its changes have made US diplomacy more efficient and ensured that officials carry out the president’s policies.
Tekineş said Turkey’s experience differed because its professional diplomats did not form an opposing bloc and instead retained influence by working with Erdoğan’s government.
Career diplomats led talks and helped implement Ankara’s Syria policy, the Blue Homeland doctrine and the government’s surveillance of critics living abroad, according to his research.
They also helped reassure foreign governments during attempts to repair relations damaged by confrontations under Erdoğan.
Tekineş questioned how much the new appointments would add to Turkey’s response to the Iran war, saying the government had already pursued a balanced policy during the fighting.
“The government has not followed a bad policy on this particular issue,” he said. “Yes, we are paying the price for earlier bad policies and practices, but during the latest war they have proceeded in a balanced and cautious manner.”
He also questioned whether career status alone ensured that an envoy possessed the language skills and knowledge needed for a Middle Eastern posting.
“I wonder what contribution career diplomats who do not even speak Persian or Arabic and who, in some cases, are unfamiliar with basic religious practices such as Muslim prayer are expected to make to Turkey’s Iran war policy,” he said.
Tekineş said professional diplomats might have provided a greater advantage during former US President Joe Biden’s administration because relations between Ankara and Washington relied more on institutions.
“If this were the Biden period, Turkish-US relations were conducted somewhat more through institutions, and since career diplomats provide more of an advantage in relations with the West, perhaps they could have made some contribution,” he said.
“But under Trump, the matter already proceeds through the leaders.”