Azernews.Az

By Gunay Hasanova

Ankara appointed Huseyin Lazip Dirioz as the new ambassador to Russia, Turkey's official Resmi Gazete reported on October 14.

In early October, Umit Yardim, who held the post of the Turkish Ambassador in Moscow back then, said that he would resign in the coming months.

Dirioz, who previously served as NATO’s assistant secretary general for defense policy and planning, has been working in the Turkish Foreign Ministry since 1978.

60-year-old Dirioz is one of the most experienced Turkish diplomats. He first joined the Turkish Foreign Ministry in 1978 and served in Kabul and Strasbourg before attending the NATO Defense College in Rome in 1987-1988.

From 1998 to 2000 he served as a Minister-Counselor in the Turkish Embassy in Washington DC

He then returned to the Foreign Ministry for a further year before joining the Turkish Delegation to NATO for four years. Huseyin Dirioz joined the NATO International Staff as Assistant Secretary-General on in 2010.

Dirioz was Turkey’s ambassador to Jordan in 2004-2008 and has also served in Brazil since 2013.

The diplomat is expected to deal with a number of issues as the two countries now engaged in restoring their ties following the last year’s incident.

The crisis in relations between Turkey and Russia began after the incident with the downed Russian plane. After the incident, the Russian president signed a decree on measures to ensure national security and launch special economic measures against Turkey.

The relations began to recover after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a letter to his Russian counterpart, where he expressed condolences to the family of the deceased pilot of SU-24 and regret over the incident with the Russian aircraft.

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Gunay Hasanova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @gunhasanova

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