Chief Negotiator for Turkish Accession to the European Union 24 May 2016. With formal accession talks between Turkey and the European Union beginning in the years 2004 and 2005, the role of Chief Negotiator was established to represent the Turkish delegation during the membership negotiations. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appointed Ali Babacan as the first Chief Negotiator on 17 January 2005, while the then-Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül became the president of the Turkish delegation. When the Ministry of European Union Affairs was established on 29 June 2011 before Erdoğan formed his third and final government, the Minister responsible for the new department began serving concurrently as the Chief
Recep Çetin Recep Çetin Recep Çetin (born 1 October 1965 in Karasu) is a Turkish footballer whose career as a defender lasted from 1979 to 2002. A native of the town of Karasu in the Marmara Region's Sakarya Province, Recep Çetin began his football career in 1979 at the age of 14 as a youth trainee in the Sakaryaspor football club, where he remained upon turning professional at 19 in 1984. Transferring to Boluspor in 1986 and Beşiktaş J.K. in 1988, he was selected to play for the Turkey national football team 56 times and played 10 seasons in Beşiktaş. He won