Jeff Flake to step down as Turkish ambassador on Sept. 1

Ambassador Jeff Flake, who previously served as a Republican senator from Arizona, will step down as the U.S. ambassador to Turkey on Sept. 1.

“It has been an honor and a privilege to represent the United States of America in this pivotal country, and to strengthen our relationship with this indispensable ally,” Flake wrote to The Hill. “The significant progress made in our bilateral relationship over the past few years owes much to bipartisan support from my former colleagues in the U.S. Congress.”

Flake is among the highest-profile Republicans serving in President Biden’s administration alongside fellow Arizona Republican Cindy McCain. McCain, the wife of the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), served as the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Program for Food and Agriculture until the White House helped elevate her to be executive director of the World Food Program.

Flake was appointed to the post in 2021 and assumed office in Turkey in January 2022.

“When the White House asked me more than three years ago if I would consider serving as an Ambassador abroad, my response was ‘Only if it’s to a consequential country.’ Well, the White House overshot the mark by quite a bit,” he added in his statement.

Flake endorsed Biden during the 2020 election and frequently criticized former President Trump.

“As a Republican appointed to this position by a Democratic President, I am particularly appreciative of the bipartisan nature of our foreign policy toward Türkiye,” Flake said in his statement.

Flake served one term in the Senate, winning election in 2012, and retired from the chamber in 2019. During the speech announcing his retirement, he criticized his party for “giving up on the core principles in favor of a more viscerally satisfying anger and resentment.”

During his two years in Turkey, Flake helped stabilize the U.S.’s relationship with Turkey, a NATO ally with increasingly fractious relations with the West under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Flake helped oversee the U.S.’s relations with Turkey while the U.S. worked to win approval from the NATO ally for Sweden and Finland to join the alliance.

Turkey was one of two countries in the alliance that raised objections to their accession after Russia invaded Ukraine. Turkey alleged that both nations helped provide shelter to Kurdish separatists, whom Turkey views as terrorists.

Turkey eventually accepted Finland’s accession; however, a U.S. sale of F-16s to Turkey was required to move Sweden’s accession forward.

The White House deferred comment to the State Department, which was not immediately available for comment.

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