Virtue Party

Turkey appointed ambassadors to 25 foreign diplomatic missions, while ambassadors from 23 countries are recalled to their headquarters in Ankara, according to a presidential decision published in the Official Gazette on June 2.

Ozan Ceyhun, a former German-Turkish European Parliament MP, has been appointed as Turkey's ambassador to Austria.

His assignment decision, by the signature of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was published in the Official Gazette on Feb. 21.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry appointed new ambassadors to Croatia and Sudan on Aug. 30, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

The appointments were issued in the Official Gazette on Aug. 31.  

Mustafa Babür Hızlan, who was on duty as the bilateral relations general manager of the Foreign Ministry, was appointed as ambassador to Croatia's Zagreb.

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has harshly criticized a recent decision by the Turkish Parliamentary Speaker's Office to pay 71,000 Turkish Liras ($20,000) in compensation to former deputy Merve Kavakçı, who was recently appointed as ambassador to Kuala Lumpur, after her ban from parliament 18 years ago.

Turkey's Parliamentary Speaker's Office has decided to pay 71,000 Turkish Liras ($20,000) in compensation to former deputy Merve Kavakçı, who was recently appointed as ambassador to Kuala Lumpur, over her ban from parliament in 1999, daily Cumhuriyet reported on Aug. 16.

A number of developments in the last few days, mostly moves by President Tayyip Erdoğan, might be signs that he has something big in mind at the planning stage.

Merve Kavakçı, who was banned from parliament in 1999 after she joined an oath ceremony in parliament wearing a headscarf following her election as a lawmaker from now defunct Virtue Party (FP), will be appointed as ambassador to Kuala Lumpur.  

It was at that time when the Welfare Party (RP) was closed and the Virtue Party (FP) had just been formed. I was the Ankara representative of daily Radikal then. A three-person team from the paper interviewed the FP party chair, Recai Kutan.