Turkey's former EU chief negotiator dies at 58

ANKARA

Turkey's Presidential Security and Foreign Policy Committee member Hatice Beril Dedeoglu died at the age of 58 on Wednesday.

Dedeoglu, who was married with two children, had been under treatment for a cerebral hemorrhage at the intensive care unit of Istanbul's Florence Nightingale Hospital since Feb. 28.

She was appointed Turkey’s minister for European Union affairs during the interim government led by Ahmet Davutoglu between Sep. and Nov. 17 in 2015.

Dedeoglu was born in 1961 in Istanbul. She was graduated from the Istanbul University's Department of International Relations in the Faculty of Economics.

She had been the head of the department of international relations at Galatasaray University since 2005.

Dedeoglu also wrote regular columns for Daily Sabah and Star newspapers.

The Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin and Turkey's presidential communications director Fahrettin Altun issued messages of condolence.

“Professor Dr. Beril Dedeoglu, apart from serving as Minister of EU Affairs […], was an important academician who will be remembered with her works and students,” said Ibrahim Kalin.

“I feel deep sorrow that Professor Dr. Beril Dedeoglu has passed away,” Altun wrote in a Twitter post, adding that she was a hard-working and productive academician.