Head of Departments

She was born in Gaziantep in 1977. She completed her primary, secondary and high school education in Gaziantep. She graduated from the Economics Department of the Faculty of Economics of Anadolu University. She holds a master's degree from the Department of Political Science and Public Administration of the Institute of Social Sciences of Selcuk University.

She started her career at Ziraat Bank in 1999. Between 2004 and 2013, she worked at the DG for Retirement Fund and the Social Security Institution. Between 2013 and 2017, she served in various positions at the Office of the Private Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.

In August 2017, she was assigned as Head of Department for Missions Abroad and Coordination at the DG of Foreign Relations and Services for Workers Abroad. She is currently working as Head of Department for Missions Abroad and Coordination at the DG of Foreign Relations and European Union. 

Derya CAN is married and has two children.

Born in Ankara in 1978, Hakan ÖZ completed his undergraduate and graduate education at Sakarya University Faculty of Economics and Business Administration (MBA). He also completed various advanced training courses on European Union and diplomacy at Ankara University European Communities Research and Application Centre (ATAUM). In 2003 and 2008, he completed training programmes in European Union and international relations at the Clingendael Academy in The Hague, Netherlands.

Since 2001, he has held various positions as an expert in international relations, EU projects and grant programmes at the Turkish Employment Agency and the Çukurova Development Agency. Between 2014 and 2024, he served as an expert in the Department of International Organisations at the Directorate General of Foreign Relations and European Union, and was appointed as Branch Manager in 2024.

Hakan ÖZ has represented our country in many international organisations such as the G20 Employment Working Group and Ministerial Meetings, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ministerial Meetings, International Labour Conferences, and the UN Commission on the Status of Women. He plays an active role in relations with international organisations such as the Council of Europe, ILO, OECD, G20 and OIC, as well as in national reporting.

Hakan ÖZ, who has an excellent command of English and an intermediate level of German, was appointed as the Acting Head of the Protocol Department at the Directorate-General of Foreign Relations and European Union in June 2025.

Biography

Atilla Ethem Zeybek, born in Bonn, Germany, in 1986, graduated from Çankaya Anadolu High School (Ankara) after completing part of his primary, secondary and high school education in Bonn and Berlin. In 2003, he was awarded the German Language Diploma (Sprachdiplom) by the German Embassy in Ankara, having ranked first in his school and second in Ankara.

Zeybek graduated from the Faculty of Law at Gazi University in 2008 and studied at the (Private) Berlin Conservatoire of Turkish Music between 2014 and 2017.

In 2009, he completed his legal traineeship in Ankara and, in the same year, began his professional career as an Assistant Specialist at the Directorate General of International Relations and Services for Overseas Workers (YIH). In 2013, he was awarded the title of YIH Specialist following his dissertation titled ‘Social Protection within the G-20 Platform and Recommendations for Expanding the Range of Social Protection in Turkey’.

Between 2013 and 2017, he served as Labour and Social Security Attaché at the Consulate General in Berlin. Following the conclusion of his post as Attaché in June 2017, he began working at the Directorate General for Foreign Relations and European Union.

Between 2019 and 2020, he worked as a programme consultant on 20 episodes of the programme titled ‘Ne Yapmalı’ (What shall be done?) on the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT), which addressed the issues faced by our citizens living abroad.

During his term of office, he participated in various international meetings on behalf of our country and the Ministry at multilateral platforms such as the Council of Europe (CoE), the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the G20, and contributed to the implementation of the Ministry’s Strategic Plan, Budget, Action Plans and legislative work. He has carried out active work on services provided to our citizens living abroad, public and diaspora diplomacy, our Ministry’s bilateral relations with Germany, and vocational training and development.

As of September 2026, he has been assigned as Acting Director of the Department of Services for Citizens Abroad.

Atilla Ethem Zeybek, who speaks German fluently and has a good command of English, is married and has two children.

He was born in Istanbul in 1984. After completing his primary, secondary and high school education in Istanbul, he graduated with honours from the Middle East Technical University Department of International Relations in 2007.

After successfully completing the competitive examination in 2010, he began working as an Assistant Specialist in Foreign Worker Services (YİH) at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. He was promoted to the position of YİH Expert in 2013.

He worked as Labour and Social Security Attaché at the Embassy in The Hague between 2016 and 2020. Following the end of his tenure as Attaché in November 2020, he started working at the Directorate General of Foreign Relations and European Union and was appointed as the Acting Head of the Department for International Organizations in June 2025.

During his career, he has represented our country and the Ministry at various international meetings in multilateral platforms such as the Council of Europe (CoE), the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the G20. In 2012, he played an active role in the preparatory work and organisation of the Council of Europe Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Social Cohesion, hosted by the Republic of Türkiye. In 2013, he took up a temporary position at the Council of Europe's Social Charter Division in Strasbourg. In 2015, he played an active role in the organisation and content of the Employment Working Group meetings and the G20 Labour and Employment Ministers' Meeting held under Türkiye's G20 Presidency. He pioneered the establishment of the Interministerial Contact Group between the Turkish and Dutch authorities and has participated in all Contact Group meetings held to date. He has also been participating in the Wittenburg Conferences between Türkiye and the Netherlands since 2019.

Medeni Can Akın has an excellent command of English and an intermediate level of Spanish. He is married and has one child.

Born in 1976 in Rize, he completed his primary, secondary and high school (Imam Hatip High School) education in Rize. He graduated from Gazi University Faculty of Economics and Business Administration and Anadolu University Business Administration departments.  He completed his master's degree in Local Administrations and Local Governments at Istanbul University. He is currently continuing his doctoral studies on Public Administration at Hacı Bayram Veli University.

Mr. OĞUZ started his career in the public sector in Rize in 2001, worked as Project Coordinator of the Eastern Black Sea Development Agency (DOKA), Project Director of the World Bank, Director of the Union for Providing Services to Villages, Director of Youth and Sports, Director of Special Administration.

After the year of 2014; he worked as the Advisor to the Minister at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. As part of his career in Directorate General of Foreign Relations, he worked as the Head of Protocol Department, Head of Citizenship Services Department and Head of Department at the EU Financial Assistance Department.

In 2021, he worked as the Head of Research and Development Department in the Directorate General of Martyrs and Veterans in the Ministry of Family and Social Services,

In 2023, he worked as a Labour Expert at the General Directorate of Occupational Health and Safety.

Currently, he works as the Head of Management Services Department in the Directorate General of Foreign Relations and European Union.

Mr. OĞUZ, who also has senior executive experience in CSOs and the private sector, is married and has three children.

Biography

Hilal Ölmez Hosta was born in Ankara in 1990 and completed her primary and secondary education in Ankara. She graduated with honours from Mehmet Emin Resulzade Anatolian High School and in 2012, graduated with High Honours from the Department of Statistics, Faculty of Science, Hacettepe University. During her undergraduate studies, she also completed a minor programme in Economics at the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences of the same university. She continued her postgraduate studies at the Department of Statistics, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Hacettepe University, and received her master’s degree in 2016 with a thesis entitled “Discrete Lifetime Models and an Application Using Data from the 2008 Survey on Domestic Violence against Women in Türkiye (TUIK)”.

She began her professional career in 2013 as an Assistant European Union Expert at the former Department of European Union and Financial Assistance of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. In 2017, she was appointed as a European Union Expert. Between 2013 and 2024, she worked as a Contract and Finance Manager for more than 30 technical assistance, supply and grant projects funded under the European Union’s Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA), managing their monitoring, evaluation, technical and financial verification processes.

From March 2024 to September 2026, she served as the Managing Authority Internal Control Coordinator and Risk Manager with responsibility for preparing assessment reports under IPA programmes, managing the accreditation processes of the Directorate General of Foreign Relations and European Union and coordinating reporting on internal control, risk and performance management. In September 2026, she was appointed as Acting Head of the Contract Management Department at the Directorate General of Foreign Relations and European Union.

Hilal Ölmez Hosta has a good command of English. She is married and has one child.

He was born in Sakarya in 1987. He completed his primary, secondary and high school education successively in Sakarya, Edirne, Kars and Ankara. In 2010, he completed his undergraduate education at the Department of Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Middle East Technical University (METU). Between 2010 and 2012, he studied in the Engineering Management Master's Programme at the Department of Industrial Engineering at Istanbul Technical University (ITU). In 2014, he completed the Business Administration Master's Programme at the Department of Business Administration at Atılım University.

He began his professional career in 2010 as a Food Engineer in the private sector. Between 2012 and 2015, he worked as an Assistant Specialist at Halk Bank; as a Finance Specialist at the Central Finance and Procurement Unit of the Prime Ministry Undersecretariat for Treasury; and as an Assistant Tax Inspector at the Tax Audit Board of the Ministry of Finance.

He began his career at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security in 2015 as an Assistant Specialist for Overseas Worker Services at the Agreements Department of the Directorate General for Foreign Relations and Overseas Worker Services (YİH). In June 2025, he was appointed as Acting Head of the Agreements Department at the Directorate General of Foreign Relations and European Union.

Uğur Emre BEKTAŞ, who has proficiency in English, is married and has one child.