Kristian Brakel heads the Turkey Office of the German Heinrich Böll Foundation in Istanbul and is an associated fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations. Prior to his current roles, he headed the office of the EU’s special representative in Sudan and served as political adviser to the EU special representative for the Middle East Peace Process. He was also a senior political analyst on the Middle East and North Africa with the NGO Crisis Action and the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the United Arab Emirates.
Mr Brakel graduated with a MA in Middle Eastern studies from the University of Hamburg. After his studies, he completed a trainee programme in development studies at Berlin’s Center for Rural Development (Seminar für Ländliche Entwicklung) and worked as an officer for political cooperation for the German Federal Foreign Office in the OPT.