Türkiye, as a founding member of the OECD, automatically became a member of the IEA. The work of the IEA is coordinated by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and followed by the relevant Turkish authorities and organizations.

Türkiye is represented by the Deputy Undersecretary of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources at the IEA Governing Board.

One of the most important activities of the IEA is the member country energy policies in-depth reviews. These reviews which are performed on a 4-5 year cycle analyze existing energy policies and general overview of energy security of the country concerned and make policy recommendations. It is optional for the country concerned whether to implement these recommendations or to choose its policy tools to apply them.

Türkiye’s latest energy policies review was carried out in 2009-2010 and launched on 23 July 2010 with a press conference in Türkiye (www.iea.org/Textbase/npsum/turkey2009SUM.pdf). The then IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka paid his first official visit to Türkiye between 22-23 July 2010 on the occasion of the launching of the Turkish energy policies review.

The Chief Economist of the IEA is Dr. Fatih Birol, a Turkish national. A team headed by Mr. Birol prepares IEA’s flagship publication World Energy Outlook (WEO) every year.