Author Archives: Ali Tuygan

Unknown's avatar

About Ali Tuygan

Ali Tuygan is a graduate of the Faculty of Political Sciences of Ankara University. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in January 1967. Between various positions in Ankara, he served at the Turkish Embassy in Brussels, NATO International Staff, Turkish Embassies in Washington and Baghdad, and the Turkish Delegation to NATO. From 1986 to 1989 he was the Principal Private Secretary to the President of the Republic. He then served as ambassador to Ottawa, Riyadh, and Athens. In 1997 he was honored with a decoration by the Italian President. Between these assignments abroad he served twice as Deputy Undersecretary for Political Affairs. In 2004 he was appointed Undersecretary where he remained until the end of 2006 before going to his last foreign assignment as Ambassador to UNESCO. He retired in 2009. In April 2013 he published a book entitled “Gönüllü Diplomat, Dışişlerinde Kırk Yıl” (“Diplomat by Choice, Forty Years in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs”) in which he elaborated on the diplomatic profession and the main issues on the global agenda. He has published articles in Turkish periodicals and newspapers.

Minsk III

13 February 2015 At the end of meeting in the Belarusian capital, Presidents Putin, Poroshenko, Hollande and Chancellor Merkel issued the “Declaration of Minsk in Support of the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements”. They reiterated … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Iran at Crossroads

12 February 2015 Iran is a country with an impressive historical and cultural heritage. It has rich natural resources, a strategic location and a population of 76 million. Following the ousting of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979, Iran’s principal concern … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Western Response to Escalation in Ukraine

7 February 2015 A group of distinguished scholars and former practitioners from the Atlantic Council, the Brookings Institution, the Center for a New American Security, and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs have recently published a report (*) which outlines … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Middle East Fratricide

7 February 2015 According to OIC’s official website, the Organization and its Secretary General issued twelve statements of condemnation during the past month. Five of these were related to developments in non-OIC countries such as the terrorist attack on Charlie … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Quo Vadis Turkey?

3 February 2015 Turkey’s traditional foreign policy, bitterly criticized by the present Government for having betrayed Turkey’s potential, stood on pillars. Our relations with the United States and the European Union constituted the first two. A third one was our … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

President Obama and the Middle East

1 February 2015 Five speeches delivered by President Obama are important to understanding his approach to the Middle East. These are: • Remarks to the Turkish Parliament (6 April 2009), • Remarks at the Cairo University where he addressed Moslem … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Breach of Protocol

30 January 2015 It would not be surprising that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s upcoming visit to Washington should remain a cause for controversy up to and even beyond the Israeli elections scheduled for 17 March 2015. As a former diplomat I … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Syriza’s Election Victory

28 January 2015 Over the last five years Greece has been on top of the EU’s economic crisis management agenda. Looking further back, one may say that leaders’ personalities and their able political reasoning probably played a larger part than … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Breaking the Syrian Deadlock

26 January 2015 With ISIS controlling swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria, terrorist attacks in Paris, turmoil in Libya and Yemen, Boko Haram’s massacres in Nigeria, public discourse of the West on Syria has started to change. References to … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Need For a Modus Vivendi in West-Russia Relations

  23 January 2015 In June 2009 President Obama visited Moscow where he expressed his desire for a “reset” in US-Russia relations. This did not happen. On 17 December 2010, Muhammed Buazizi lit the flame of the Arab Spring which … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment