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 Çelik Recep Çelik Recep Çelik (born June 10, 1983 in Diyarbakır, Turkey) is a Turkish racewalker. The tall athlete weighs , and is a member of the İzmir Büyükşehir Belediyespor, where he is coached by Nikolai Radionov. He graduated 2004 in physical education and sports from the Vocational College of Aksaray at Niğde University before he studied Regional Public Administration at Anadolu University. He is the holder of the national records in 10 km walk (road) and 20 km walk (road). Recep Çelik represented Turkey in the 20km race walk event at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. He is qualified to