Former Turkish Foreign Minister and retired Ambassador Yaşar Yakış joined diplomatic service in 1962. He served in various capacities in Antwerp, Lagos, Rome, Brussels and Damascus. He became Ambassador to Riyadh in 1988, Deputy Under-Secretary in the Foreign Ministry in 1992, Ambassador to Cairo in 1995 and Permanent Representative of Turkey to the UN Office in Vienna in 1998. He retired in 2000 and became founding member of the Justice and Development Party and its Deputy Chairman. He was elected Member of Parliament and served until 2011. Also, he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2002 and 2003.

He participated as government representative in the European Convention that drafted the European Constitution. He was the Chairman of the EU Committee in the Turkish Parliament and Co-Chairman of the Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Commission: 2003-2011. He was the Chairman of the French Caucus in the Turkish Parliament: 2003-2011.

He was an Associate Member at the St. Antony’s College in the Oxford University (2012-2013).

He has worked as a weekly columnist in Today’s Zaman (October 2013-2014), in Zaman (2014), in Arab News (since 2017) and in Ahval News (since 2017).

He speaks French, English and Arabic.