Hakan Fidan

After a first degree in management and political sciences at University of Maryland University College he got master's thesis and PhD thesis, both from Bilkent University. He was a non-commissioned officer in the Turkish Army from 1986 to 2001. He was the head of the Turkish Development and Cooperation Agency[2][3] from 2003 to 2007.[4] In November 2007 he was appointed as a deputy-undersecretary in the Prime Ministry.[3][5] From May 2010 to February 2015, he was the undersecretary (i.e. chief) of the National Intelligence Organization (Turkish: Milli İstihbarat Teşkilatı, MİT). On 7 February 2015, he resigned from his position to run for the Turkish Grand National Assembly from the AK Parti.[6] One month later, on 9 March 2015, he withdrew his candidacy and hours later was reappointed to his former job by the Government.[7]

In 2009 he was involved in secret peace talks with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Oslo, and he was later delegated to hold talks with Abdullah Öcalan and arranged the secret black marketing of Iran through Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's government.[8][9]