Bozkurt Aran

Bozkurt Aran graduated from Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences in 1971 and started to work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the Third Secretary at the Department of Eastern Europe in 1973. Aran served as Vice Consul at Salzburg Consulate General; First Secretary at the Kuala Lumpur Embassy; and as Economic Counselor at the Washington Embassy. He was appointed the Consul General of the Republic of Turkey at Dusseldorf, Germany (1989-1993); Ambassador to Pakistan (1998-2000); Permanent Representative at UNESCO-Paris (2002-2004); and Ambassador to Islamic Republic of Iran (2004-2006). He also served as the Permanent Representative of Turkey to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Geneva (2007-2012).

In addition to fulfilling the expected functions at the WTO, Aran chaired the Trade Policy Board, the Committee of Trade and Environment, and the Accession Working Committee of Belorussia; and was a member of the Management Board of the Advisory Centre on WTO Law (ACWL).

After serving as the Deputy Director General for Bilateral Relations for European Countries at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey (1993-1998), he worked as the Directorate General for Bilateral Economic Affairs (2000-2002) and Director General for Middle East (2006-2008).

Bozkurt Aran is the director of the TEPAV Center for Multilateral Trade Studies established in August 2012.