From the Minister

Looking at the development of the deep-rooted tradition of Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it can be recognized that the Ministry has gone through four different phrases. The first-generation foreign service officials is the generation of diplomats trained at the “Chamber of Translation” established in the Reorganization - Tanzimat - period. This generation brought up the leading statesmen like Mustafa Resit Pasha. In these Reorganization and Constitutional Eras, the Ottoman Ministry of Foreign Affairs formed a part of the bureaucracy who worked for protecting the existence of a collapsing empire. The second period in the foreign affairs started with the founding of the Republic in the aftermath of the great wars of early Twentieth Century; the Balkan Wars, First World War, and Independence War. Diplomats dispatched to all around the world with the purpose of introducing and keeping up the new government, constitute this second generation. Experiencing the dreadful consequences of the First World War, these diplomats worked to keep the Country out of a new war and to introduce the new State to the world. The third generation diplomats are those of the Cold War Era in the post-Second World War. During this period, the existence of the Country had been well-established upon sound foundations and a certain progress in the recognition of the Country had been achieved, but there were some restrictions and limitations entailed by the Cold War Era, some of which were the Soviet threat, tensions with Greece and economic insufficiency. In this bipolar period, major progression and initiatives were not expected from the Foreign Affairs, which was dealing with the above-mentioned issues. Naturally, the Ministry embraced not a proactive foreign policy, but more of a passive one. We have great expectations from the fourth generation comprising today’s young diplomats. We hope and desire these young diplomats to be self-confident, dynamic, well-equipped and capable of keeping pace with the increasing visibility of Turkey across the globe, her active policy, new challenges and fast-changing balances: We expect these diplomats to make in-depth analysis of the changes with insight, having higher judgment capability, and to know well their home country and culture as well as having good command on foreign languages. The main task of the Diplomacy Academy is to train these fourth-generation young diplomats, to convey the long-established diplomacy tradition to this new generation, and to train officials who can adapt to the changing global conditions. This task is vested in the Diplomacy Academy with the Law on Organization of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs amended in 2010. Taking into account the fact that the profession of diplomacy is better learnt through experience sharing, the trainings of the Academy is not mere knowledge transfer. These trainings are planned in a manner to bring young diplomats together with the seniors in the profession, notably the retired ambassadors, expert bureaucrats and academics. These trainings are reinforced with various visits to certain regions and countries, which increase the efficiency, quality and publicity of the Diplomacy Academy, as one of the leading diplomatic schools. Furthermore, one of the principles adopted by the Diplomacy Academy is to offer training services to the officials of other public institutes and organizations and young diplomats from other countries in compliance with the today’s changing conditions and requirements. It is also among my priorities to make this Academy a powerful, effective and qualified training institution. There is no doubt that this restructured Diplomacy Academy will be a great asset to the Ministry in training our diplomats in the best way in highest standards in this ever-changing world. With these feelings and considerations, I wish to express my profound appreciation to the Academy and its staff.

Mevlüt ÇAVUŞOĞLU

Minister of Foreign Affairs