By Janet Ekstract
ISTANBUL -Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has instituted a number of reforms at the Turkish Foreign Ministry to create more seamlessness within its diverse sectors. A recent presidential decree states that Turkiye will expand its foreign relations, being represented in every region. Also, an addition of a central structure to highlight a strong diplomatic network with the goal of Turkiye promoting prosperity within its region and surrounding regions is planned. The plan is to expand stability and security while strengthening institutionalization in Turkiye’s foreign relations. To promote Turkiye’s expanding regional mediation efforts, a new General Directorate for International Mediation has been formed. With regard to bilateral relations, which Turkiye places a great emphasis on, there is now the General Directorates of Bilateral Relations to deal with issues including economy, politics, trade, energy, culture, health, security, defense and technology within Turkiyes foreign relations framework. A boon for the technology sector is the General Directorate of Science and Technology Policies with the goal of analyzing the impact of international relations by following current technologies closely. Legislation and regime studies in technology will be compared with Turkiye’s policies in line with Turkiye’s national interests.
Another primary focus will be protecting the rights and interests of Turkiye and its citizens abroad. To that end, the number of general directorates in the ministry will expand with a general directorate to be set up for each region and separately for individual countries. The Americas and Latin America General Directorate were separated and the Latin America General Directorate was founded. Currently, there is a new Iran-Iraq General Directorate established. There is also a new General Directorate for Central Asia and the organization of Turkic States (OTS) since there will be a major focus on this region in the future as it has a central focus for Turkiye. Other new changes include foreign ministry spokespeople being separated from the departments of public diplomacy and strategic communications that were under the Directorate General for Information. A primary goal of this department is to promote the ministry’s work to the public in a timely, prompt way.
For foreigners living in Turkiye, a new strategy with stronger coordination among the General Directorate of Consular Services and Citizens Living Abroad and the General Directorate of Immigration Policies and Visa Procedures will provide quicker responses to citizens. Visa and immigration procedures were reorganized under the responsibility of a single general directorate, as well. Specialization will also be an important feature of the new ministry reforms with units within each general directorates to focus on various areas such as political, economic, social, security and defense in different regions. Part of the new plan is a General Directorate of Humanitarian and Technical Assistance established to coordinate bilateral and multilateral cooperation regarding natural disasters and epidemics. It will also coordinate humanitarian aid to and from Turkiye, a professional unit within it will also demonstrate Turkiye’s proactive policies on humanitarian aid and regional development in various regions.
