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Past Event
Seminar

Trends and Developments in Turkish Foreign Policy: A Conversation with H.E. Hasan Murat Mercan, Ambassador of Türkiye to the U.S., and Sir Peter Westmacott, former Ambassador of the UK to Türkiye

RSVP Required Harvard Faculty, Fellows, Staff, and Students

Please join the Belfer Center’s Future of Diplomacy Project and Project on Europe and the Transatlantic Relationship for a seminar on Türkiye’s current global role with H.E. Hasan Murat Mercan, Ambassador of Türkiye to the U.S., and Sir Peter Westmacott, former Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Türkiye, the U.S., and France. Ambassadors Mercan and Westmacott will discuss a range of regional issues, including the war in Ukraine and NATO as well as Turkish-American relations. This conversation will be moderated by Ambassador Paula J. Dobriansky, Senior Fellow with the Future of Diplomacy Project.

Date: Time: - Location: Malkin Penthouse, 4th Floor
Ambassador Murat Mercan

ABOUT

Ambassador Hasan Murat Mercan

Mercan is Ambassador of Türkiye to the United States. Previously, he was Türkiye's ambassador to Tokyo, Japan. Before being appointed to Tokyo in 2017, Mercan served as deputy minister of energy and natural resources. He also served as the chairman of the Turkish Foreign Affairs Committee during the 23rd term of the Turkish Parliament (2007-2011).

Mercan also held the position of chairman of the Turkish Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the European Interparliamentary Defense and Security Assembly (IESDA) in addition to serving as the vice-president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (2002-2007).

Ambassador Sir Peter Westmacott

Sir Peter Westmacott was British Ambassador to the United States from January 2012 until January 2016. He then spent a semester at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Westmacott was British Ambassador to France from 2007-2012 and to Turkey from 2002-2006. His 43-year diplomatic career included four years in Iran before the 1979 revolution and a secondment to the European Commission in Brussels. He was the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Director Americas from 1997-2000 and Deputy Under Secretary of State for the Wider World from 2000-2001. From 1990-1993, he was Deputy Private Secretary to HRH The Prince of Wales.

He is now a Senior Advisor at Chatham House, a Distinguished Ambassadorial Fellow of the Atlantic Council, Chairman of Tikehau Capital UK and of the International Advisory Board of Tikehau Capital, a Non-Executive Director of We.Soda Ltd, Volex Plc and Glasswall Holdings and an Advisory Director of Campbell Lutyens Ltd.

He is the author of They Call It Diplomacy: Forty Years of Representing Britain Abroad, published by Head of Zeus in February 2021.