This is the first time that the Foreign Ministry is encouraging their diplomats to learn foreign languages by hiring private instructors. The move is particularly attention-grabbing as Turkey’s former ambassador to Israel, Ahmet Oğuz Çelikkol, was severely criticized for not speaking the language of the country he was serving in. He was insulted by Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon when, in response to a photojournalist’s request during the meeting to take a photo of them shaking hands, Ayalon asked them in Hebrew whether they had noticed that Çelikkol was sitting in a lower armchair in front of a table with only the Israeli flag on it, and not the flags of both countries, as is customary. When speaking to reporters after the incident in early January this year, Çelikkol said he would have left the room immediately had Ayalon said this in English.In contrast, diplomatic sources vehemently reject any link between the “armchair crisis” and the hiring of private Hebrew instructors, claiming that the project was planned long before the incident with Israel took place and the project does not only cover Hebrew. As Turkish foreign policy has started to become more active in the past year, the Turkish Foreign Ministry is planning to increase a number of well-equipped and well-educated personnel to undertake the new foreign policy expansion. Within this scope, language learning opportunities for Foreign Ministry employees are being expanded. Foreign Ministry personnel previously attended courses at the Turkish and Foreign Languages Research and Application Center (TÖMER); however, TÖMER only teachers major foreign languages. For this reason, the Foreign Ministry has decided to hire private foreign language instructors for their diplomats. The first such course is Hebrew. Personnel who are to be dispatched to Turkey’s diplomatic mission in Israel will start Hebrew courses whilst current diplomats serving in Israel will continue to learn Hebrew. The courses are not compulsory, but personnel are strongly encouraged to learn the language of a country that they are assigned to.
The majority of Turkish diplomats speak only major foreign languages. The appointments of diplomats are now announced several months in advance so that they have a reasonable amount of time to learn about the culture, language and tradition of the countries they will be assigned to. Many ambassadors of foreign countries in Ankara speak Turkish, and some of them are fluent. The US’ envoy in Ankara, James Jeffrey, makes most of his statements in Turkish, and German Ambassador to Turkey Eckart Cuntz says he follows the Turkish media without any assistance. The Polish and Hungarian ambassadors also speak fluent Turkish.
