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
Zal Batmanglij Zal Batmanglij Zal Batmanglij (born 1981) is an American film director and screenwriter. He directed and co-wrote the 2011 film "Sound of My Voice" and the 2013 film "The East", both of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as the Netflix series "The OA", which debuted in 2016. Batmanglij was born in 1981 in France to Iranian parents and grew up in Washington, D.C.. His mother, Najmieh Batmanglij, is a cookbook author; his father is a book publisher. His younger brother Rostam was a founding member of the band Vampire Weekend. Both brothers are gay. Batmanglij studied