A Transatlantic Diplomatic Exchange Fellow from Ankara discovers more similarities than he expected when he spends a year in Foggy Bottom.
BY ÖMER MURAT
American Foreign Service Association - June 2014
However long my career as a Turkish diplomat lasts, I will always
cherish my year (2011-2012) at the U.S. Department of State with the
Transatlantic Diplomatic Exchange Fellowship Program. This unique
program allows diplomats from NATO and the European Union to work at
State for a year. The Turkish Foreign Ministry highly values this
opportunity for its diplomats to experience the U.S. foreign
policymaking process from the inside, and to facilitate better relations
between our two countries.
Excited as I was to be assigned to such an important program, I must
confess that I had no real idea just how challenging—and rewarding—an
experience it would be. It took longer than I expected to overcome a
difficult-to-explain sense that I was some sort of impostor—a feeling
exacerbated whenever I met someone who treated me as one of his or her
“ordinary” American colleagues. In fact, many of my State Department
colleagues were genuinely surprised to learn I am a Turkish diplomat,
especially those who had never before met a Transatlantic Diplomatic
Fellow.
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