Hasan Murat Mercan

Hasan Murat Mercan trained as an industrial engineer at Boğaziçi University and earned a doctorate in decision and information sciences at the University of Florida. He taught at Cleveland State and Bilkent universities before moving into politics. A founding member of the Justice and Development Party, he represented Eskişehir in parliament and chaired the foreign affairs committee. ¹

Mercan’s parliamentary work also included leading Turkish delegations to European assemblies. He served as deputy minister of energy and natural resources from 2012 to 2014, then as ambassador in Tokyo from 2017 to 2021. Japan later recognized his work supporting high level visits, student contacts, and exchanges between sister cities. ^{1, 2, 3}

As ambassador in Washington from 2021 to 2024, he helped mobilize support after the February 2023 earthquakes. The embassy collected and shipped donated supplies; by 2 March it reported receiving 234 tonnes of tents, blankets, sleeping bags, medicines, food, and other material. Mercan thanked the volunteers who sorted those donations at a gathering at the residence. ^{4, 2}

After leaving Washington he returned to teaching. An April 2026 university event biography identified him as an instructor at İbn Haldun University. In October that year, Japan’s embassy in Ankara held a decoration ceremony recognizing his earlier service in Tokyo. ^{2, 3}