Mehmet Yilmaz, Turkey’s ambassador to Somalia, has been called back to Ankara and replaced by Ibrahim Mete Yagli after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a decree reshuffling ambassadors globally on Saturday.
The decree was published in the Official Gazette just before the new year.
Yilmaz, Turkey’s man in Mogadishu since December 2018, made several notable contributions but will be remembered for increasing the number of Somali students studying in Turkey.
Ibrahim Mete Yagli, a career diplomat who joined Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1986, will take over for Yilmaz.
Yagli held several positions at home and abroad, including the First Undersecretary at the Polish Embassy in 2005 and the General Directorate of Multilateral Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2008. Most recently, he was the Consul General in Vienna before becoming the Ambassador to Botswana from 2014 to 2019.
Yagli is expected to arrive in Mogadishu in January to present his credentials to Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
Turkey and Somalia have considerably developed diplomatic, economic, military, and political ties since the early 2010s.
Turkey and Somalia have developed strong diplomatic, economic, military, and political ties since the early 2010s, as evidenced by the construction of Turkey’s largest overseas embassy in Mogadishu, which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated in 2013.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made eight other ambassadorial changes, including Halil İbrahim Akça as the Ambassador of Turkey to Brazil, Şaban Dişli as the Turkish Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and Havva Yonca Gündüz Özçeri as the Turkish Ambassador to the Ivory Coast.
