Ahmet Altay Cengizer

Ahmet Altay Cengizer (born 1954) is a Turkish diplomat and the current permanent delegate at the UNESCO for Turkey and a former president of the General Conference of the UNESCO.

Ahmet Altay Cengizer
Permanent delegate to the UNESCO
Incumbent
Assumed office 2016
President of the General conference of the UNESCO
In office 2019 – November 2021
Succeeded by	Santiago Irazabal Mourao
Personal details
Born	1954 (age 70–71) Istanbul, Turkey
Citizenship	Turkish
Alma mater	Boğaziçi University (BA) London School of Economics (MA)
Occupation	Diplomat

Education

Ahmet Altay Cengizer graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Political science from Boğaziçi University in Istanbul in 1977.^[1][2] He followed up on his studies at the London School of Economics where he graduated with a Master of Arts degree in International History.^[2][3][4][5]

Diplomatic career

His diplomatic career began in 1984, and he was deployed to several Turkish embassies since. His diplomatic service at International organizations began in 2001 when he began to serve in the office of the Turkish delegate to the United Nations in New York, to which he was deployed until 2005.^[6] From 2005 until 2006 he served as the Turkish ambassador to Tajikistan^[6] and from 2009 onwards, he served as the Turkish Ambassador to Ireland until 2016.^[6] In October of the same year he was appointed the permanent Turkish delegate to the UNESCO^[6] and was later elected to the executive board for the term between 2017 and 2021.^[7] He was elected to preside over the General Conference of the UNESCO for the term between 2019 and 2021 in October 2019.^[8] His tenure was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic. In November 2021 he was succeeded by Santiago Irazabal Mourao of Brazil.^[9]

Views

He is a supporter of Turkeys accession to the European Union^[10] arguing that Turkey is the only Muslim country developing democratically and the most industrially developed between Japan and Austria.^[10]