The State of Turkish- EU Relations
Barçın Yinanç talked to Ambassador Selim Yenel on May 7, 2021, via Zoom about the state of the Turkish- EU Relations
Selim Yenel
Ambassador
Selim Yenel was born in 1956 in Istanbul. He entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in 1979. Among his posts are the Turkish Delegation to the OECD (1981 – 84), Turkish Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan (1984 – 86), Turkish Delegation to the UN in New York (1988 – 92), Turkish Delegation to the EU (1994 – 99). In Ankara he dealt with EU matters (1999 - 2005). He was Ambassador to Vienna (2005 – 2009). He was Deputy Under-Secretary for Bilateral Political Affairs and Public Diplomacy (2009 – 2011). From December 2011 till January 2017 he was posted as Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Turkey to the EU. Undersecretary at the Ministry of EU Affairs (2017 – 2018). In 2019 he was appointed as First Deputy Secretary-General at the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) Organization. In January 2020 he became President of Global Relations Forum. He is married with a son and a daughter.
Barçın Yinanç
Gazeteci
Barçın Yinanç, is currently an independent journalist. She has a career of 30 years covering Turkey’s foreign policy and international relations. She writes analysis and opinion articles for the websites T24 and Yetkinreport. She also provides comments to news channels. Until September 2020 she was the opinion editor of the English language Hürriyet Daily News, where her columns were also published. She also conducted the paper’s weekly interviews for nearly a decade. Prior to that Yinanç worked in CNN Türk’s İstanbul headquarters as an editor for a news program. Yinanç started her career in Ankara; where she worked 15 years as a diplomatic reporter before moving to İstanbul. She travelled extensively in Europe and the Middle East, covering Turkish leaders visits to these regions and reported from key summits of NATO, EU and OSCE. In 2001 she became a tv reporter and worked in CNN Türk Ankara office until 2004 when she moved to İstanbul. Yinanç studied international relations at the Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) in Ankara. She is the Olympic torchbearer of 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. She is a member of Diplomatic Reporters Association, Ski Club of International Journalists (SCIJ) and Women in Foreign Policy Platform. Barçın Yinanç speaks fluent English and French.