Turkish intelligence chief Hakan Fidan has taken over the foreign ministry portfolio in President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's new government, succeeding Mevlut Cavusoglu.
This came in President Erdogan's announcement of his new ministerial formation on Saturday evening in the capital, Ankara.
Here is an overview of Hakan Fidan's academic composition and the most prominent positions he held:
- Born in Ankara in 1968.
- He graduated from the Military School of the Language School of the Land Forces in 1986.
- B.A. in Political and Administrative Science from the University of Maryland.
- Master and PhD from Bilkent University in Ankara / Department of International Relations.
- He served in NATO Rapid Intervention Units (NATO).
- He worked for the German Rapid Information Gathering Branch.
- Responsible for foreign policy and security issues in the Prime Minister's Office.
- Member of the Board of Directors of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
- Special Representative of the President of the Republic and Deputy Head of the Intelligence Service.
- In 2003, he assumed the position of President of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), and continued in his position until 2007.
- He served as deputy head of Turkey's intelligence service in April 2010.
- He served as head of the intelligence service for 13 years since May 2010, making him the first young president to hold that position.
It is noteworthy that the Republican Attorney General in Istanbul – who has special powers – summoned Fidan on the seventh of February 2012 to interrogate him as a suspect, and as a result the law on the intelligence service was amended to link the permission to allow investigation with the employees of the service or with its head with a special permission from the Prime Ministry only.