U.S. President Donald Trump has nominated David Satterfield to be the country’s next ambassador to Turkey, the White House said Friday. Satterfield is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service and has been Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs since 2017.
His appointment is not yet official as he must be confirmed by the Senate. “Previously, Ambassador Satterfield served as the Director General of the Multinational Force and Observers in Rome, Italy from 2014 to 2017 and 2009 to 2013,” the White House said in a statement. Satterfield also assumed top posts at U.S. missions in Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Lebanon.
THE POST HAS BEEN EMPTY SINCE THEN
John Bass was the last serving American ambassador to Ankara from 2014 to 2017. Bass, who is assuming the office of the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, left Turkey in October 2017 amid a visa crisis between Washington and Ankara. The post has been empty since then.
The U.S. Embassy in Ankara suspended all non-immigrant visa services at all U.S. diplomatic facilities in Turkey, and Turkey’s Washington Embassy followed suit in suspending non-immigrant visa services.
That followed the arrest of Metin Topuz, an employee at the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul, for alleged ties to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the July 15, 2016 defeated coup in Turkey.