Nuh Yilmaz, Turkey’s ambassador to Syria, presented his credentials to Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa on Monday.
Yilmaz was appointed to the role last year, and the presentation of credentials is a significant symbolic step. As a key player in Syria, the Turkish ambassador assumes an important role.
Turkey has been a key supporter of Sharaa’s government over the past year, which matters for the region because Syria is rebuilding and working to attract investment. Damascus is seeking to rebuild peacefully, but it is facing several challenges.
United States Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack is also a major player in Damascus, doubling as the Trump administration’s special envoy to Syria, while he also plays a role in Iraq. The appointment of Turkey’s envoy to Damascus matters and could impact Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan as well.
Sharaa came to power after the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024. Turkey was quick to send envoys and officials to Damascus to work with the new government. Over the past year, there have been many high-level meetings, as well as bilateral security cooperation, and Ankara is supplying Damascus with light armored vehicles for its security forces.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani attended the ceremony in which Yilmaz presented his credentials to Sharaa at the People’s Palace in Damascus, Syria’s state media SANA reported.
“Turkey reopened its embassy in Damascus on December 14, 2025, following a 12-year closure. The embassy had been shut in protest of the actions of the deposed regime. Upon reopening, Burhan Koroglu was appointed as Turkey’s charge d’affaires in Damascus,” SANA noted.
Who is Nuh Yilmaz?
When Yilmaz was first appointed last year, his biography, based on information from the Turkish Foreign Ministry, was circulated online. Born in 1974, he served as deputy foreign minister from May 2024 to October 2025. He also headed the ministry’s Strategic Research Center and was chief adviser to the foreign minister.
Previously, Yilmaz spent a decade at Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization. In 2012, he worked as a news editor at a paper. Between September 2012 and June 2013, he was a visiting researcher at the European Council on Foreign Relations, and he was also briefly employed at Al Jazeera Turk. From December 2008 until July 2011, he was the SETA Foundation’s Washington office director, while also employed at CNN Turk.
Additionally, Yilmaz has had an academic career. He was a lecturer at George Mason University, where he previously held a role as a teaching assistant. In the early 2000s, he taught at Trent University and Bilkent University. This was when the current ruling party, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), came to power in Ankara.
Yilmaz has a PhD from Yildirim Beyazit University and conducted doctoral research at George Mason University. He began his undergraduate studies in political science and public administration at Marmara University in 1994.
He is the author of several books and academic studies, including one called Islam’da Resin Yasagi Soylemi (The Discourse on the Prohibition of Images in Islam).
In November, he wrote on X/Twitter, “I express my gratitude to our president, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for appointing me as the ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to the Syrian Arab Republic, and to our [foreign] minister, Mr. Hakan Fidan, for their appreciation.”
He added, “[Drawing] strength from the strong humanitarian and cultural ties that have existed between Turkey and Syria for centuries, we will strive to develop our relations in a way that contributes to the principles of good neighborliness and the peace and stability of our region.”