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 Gürkan with the partner town Lörrach since his time at Trakya University. Gürkan is married and has two children. Recep Gürkan Recep Gürkan (born 1 August 1964 in İpsala, Edirne Province) is a Turkish politician of the CHP. He was previously a member of Parliament, and since 30 March 2014 he is mayor of Edirne. After finishing school he continued his education at Trakya University in Edirne and the Anadolu University in Eskişehir. His final exams were in the Faculty of Social Science, Department of Administration. After his studies, Guerkan became a teacher and headmaster in a number of Turkish schools,