Foreign Ministry launches internal reforms for new diplomacy vision
Under Hakan Fidan, the Foreign Ministry has launched a series of reforms, establishing new general directorates and units to specialize in every region under a new vision
THE FOREIGN Ministry has launched a series of reforms, ameliorating its institutional, administrative, technical and physical conditions for its new vision under Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.
Regulations were made in the ministry’s legislation to enable structural reforms, allowing faster, more efficient and influential work. The recently published presidential decree stated that Türkiye’s foreign relations will expand and that the country will have representation in every region as well as a central structure that will reflect its strong diplomatic network.
Among other targets, it was underlined that Türkiye will promote prosperity in its region and beyond while expanding stability and security and strengthening institutionalization in its foreign relations. Moreover, the rights and interests of Türkiye and its citizens abroad will be protected.
Therefore, the activity areas of the ministry will be developed and the service units will be organized in a structure suitable for these activities. The number of general directorates within the ministry will be increased. A general directorate will be established for every region and sometimes even separately for individual countries.
The Americas and Latin America General Directorate was separated and the Latin America General Directorate was established. Iran and Iraq were removed from the South Asia General Directorate and the Iran-Iraq General Directorate was formed.
With a new General Directorate for Central Asia and the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), the ministry underlined its future focus on the region and the importance it attaches to the OTS, which has stepped up its activities in recent years.
The mouthpiece for the ministry has also grown into a different unit, separating spokespeople from the departments of public diplomacy and strategic communication, which were previously under the helm of the Directorate General for Information. The main strategy of the department will be to convey the ministry’s work to the public in the fastest and most accurate manner.
Attaching importance to specialization, units were organized within the general directorates to focus on different areas of regions such as political, economic, social, security and defense.
A General Directorate of Humanitarian and Technical Assistance was also formed to coordinate bilateral and multilateral cooperation regarding natural disasters and epidemics and to coordinate humanitarian aid coming to and from Türkiye. Through this new directorate, a professional unit will reflect Türkiye’s proactive policies on humanitarian aid and regional development in various regions.
Separately, with a new General Directorate for International Mediation, Türkiye’s growing efforts in this area will be carried out in a more systematized manner.
The General Directorates Responsible for Bilateral Political Affairs have been renamed to address issues such as the economy, politics, trade, energy, culture, health, security, defense and technology within Türkiye’s foreign relations framework. Accordingly, the names of the general directorates were changed to the “General Directorates of Bilateral Relations.”
The works of the General Directorate of Consular Services and Citizens Living Abroad and the General Directorate of Immigration Policies and Visa Procedures were reviewed and a new strategy with strengthened coordination, which will provide a faster response to citizens, was reflected in the ministry’s structure.
Visa and immigration procedures were reorganized to be under the responsibility of a single general directorate.
With the General Directorate of Science and Technology Policies, the ministry aims to analyze the impact of international relations by closely following today’s technologies, to compare the legislation and regime studies in this field with the policies in the country and to make the necessary arrangements in line with the country’s national interests.