From the Director

Astounding developments in international arena and mounting challenges have increased the significance of diplomacy for both states and peoples. The meaning of diplomacy has expanded and deepened substantially. In this regard, fostering qualified human resources who can keep pace with and shape future changes bear vital importance for Turkish Foreign Policy and the Ministry.

Diplomacy Academy holds an important cornerstone in mobilizing human resources of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other state institutions involved in execution of foreign policy in parallel with the expanding vision of the Turkish Foreign Policy. In this regard, Diplomacy Academy founded under the name of “Training Center” in 1967, took its current status adapting its mission and vision to the requirements of the time with an amendment to its legal foundation in 2010.

Diplomacy Academy, previously focusing merely on trainings for career officers, now provides training programs for all categories of officers including consular and expertise officers, assistant experts and headquarters officers.  Additionally, the Academy organizes training programs for staff to be posted abroad and their spouses, orientation courses for ambassadors and consul generals and various professional development programs in the headquarters such as management training for heads of departments.   It also organizes seminars and trainings for other public institutions on topics such as “Protocol Rules”, “Representation”, “Negotiation techniques” and “Foreign Policy”.

With the training programs oriented at foreign diplomats, Diplomacy Academy diversifies its practices in line with the expanding scope of Turkish Foreign Policy. With the 25th“International Junior Diplomats Training Program” in 2019, Diplomacy Academy welcomed young diplomats from 64. By the end of 2019 the number of countries with which the Academy signed “Memoranda of Understanding for Cooperation” has reached 111. For those countries, the Academy organizes weeklong diplomat training programs in Türkiye. As of October 2023, the number of foreign diplomats participated in the Academy's multilateral and bilateral training programs has reached to 3600.

Diplomacy Academy conducts these comprehensive and multidimensional training programs with contribution from academics from Turkish and foreign Universities, bureaucrats from other state institutions as well as senior diplomats from the Ministry. Our mission, as it is evident from the type of training programs the Academy organizes, is tridimensional. First objective is to provide our newly-recruited officers with a strong vision via comprehensive and profound trainings ensuring them with the skills and knowledge prerequisite for making reliable analytical evaluations, handling crises decisively and executing state policies effectively in the face of today’s fast global and regional transformation.

In line with the expanding and deepening disposition of diplomacy requiring the contributions of a number of partners, our second objective is to set up a sound infrastructure for the international relations departments’ staff of other state institutions with seminars and training programs ranging from essential topics such as “Turkish Foreign Policy” and other topics of international agenda to specific issues like “Representation” and “Negotiation Techniques”.

Lastly, we aim to form a cooperation platform among diplomatic academies by sharing the broad experience of the Ministry stemming from its centuries old diplomacy tradition within the framework of cooperation agreements signed with various countries. Activities in this direction also serve to the introduction of our culture and structure of the Ministry to guest diplomats from these partner countries.

Diplomacy Academy, aware of its responsibilities for the future of Turkish Diplomacy, endeavors to maximize its efforts to enhance its work. Our primary source of motivation while pursuing this quest is the invaluable support of H.E Hakan FİDAN, Minister of Foreign Affairs  and contribution from the Ministry officers.

Best Regards,

Prof. Dr.Mesut Özcan

Director