Ayşegül Kandaş

Ayşegül Kandaş (born 1967 in Istanbul) is a Turkish diplomat and the incumbent Turkey ambassador to Pretoria (South Africa), Lesotho and Eswatini.

Education
She graduated from high school at Robert College of Istanbul in 1985, and obtained her first degree in 1989 from the Bosphorus University Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Department of Political Science and International Relations. Kandaş obtained four master's degree from Istanbul, Brugge, Washington and Northern Cyprus. In 1990, She obtained her first master's degree  in European Economic Community Politics (no thesis) from Marmara University in Istanbul. She also got M.A. in International Studies - Middle East Politics from University of Washington, Faculty of International Relations in 1992. In 1997, Kandaş received her third master's degree from the College of Europe (Brugge), in European Political and Administrative Studies. and in 2014, at Near East University, She obtained a master's degree in Counseling and Psychology.

Career
She worked in the private sector from 1989 until 1993 when She joined the Turkey Ministry of foreign affairs as a candidate career officer. She served as the Deputy Directorate General for Middle East and Africa between 1993 and 1995. She was the Third Secretary, at the Turkish Embassy in Baku from 1995 to 1997 and Second Secretary, Permanent Mission to the Common Market (later European Union), Brussels between 1997 and 2000. She initially was Second Secretary, later the First Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Directorate General for the European Union from 2000 to 2002 and First Secretary, Counsellor, Turkish Embassy in Berlin between 2003 and 2006. From 2007 to 2009, Kandaş was the Chief of Section, Head of department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Department for Consular IT Services, and between 2009 and 2014 was the First Counsellor, Minister Counsellor, Turkish Embassy in Nicosia, TRNC. She served as Head of department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Directorate General for the EU from 2014 to 2018. From 2018 to June 2021, Kandaş served as Minister Plenipotentiary, Deputy Director General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Directorate General for Citizens Living Abroad and Estates.

In May 2021, Kandaş was listed to replace Ambassador Elif Çamoğlu as the Turkey ambassador to South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini. (Turkey do not have an Embassy in Lesotho, Relations with the kingdom have been managed by the Turkish Embassy in Pretoria since 1997. The Turkish Embassy in Pretoria is also accredited to Eswatini).