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 Altepe Mr Kadir Topbaş, Mayor of Istanbul. In October 2009 the Turkish press claimed that he was devoting much of his energy to the development of the Uludağ resort. He is also active in the Healthy Cities Association of Turkey. Recep Altepe Recep Altepe, (born 1959, Bursa, Turkey) is a Turkish politician and the current mayor of Bursa. He graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Gazi University. He began his political life with the Welfare Party. In the 2004 local elections he was elected to the Osmangazi Municipality. In the 2009 local elections he was elected to the Bursa