Firat Sunel

Turkish diplomat, author, lawyer and scriptwriter.

Born in Odemis province of Izmir in Western Anatolia as descendant of an immigrant family. His family migrated again to Germany as “Gastarbeiter” (Guest Worker) when he was five. Studied law at Istanbul University and did his postgraduate at Bochum Ruhr University in Germany. As a career diplomat, he served in Bangkok, Bonn, Essen and Tbilisi before becoming in Dusseldorf the first ever Turkish Consul General from a Gastarbeiter family. In 2013 he was appointed as the first resident Turkish Ambassador in Asmara/Eritrea. In 2016 he returned to Ankara and had served as Director General for Legal Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for five years before he was sent to new Delhi as Ambassador.

Sunel’s published novels include Salkım Söğütlerin Gölgesinde [In the Shade of the Weeping Willows, 2011] which inspired a TV series called Buyuk Surgun Kafkasya [The Great Exile Caucasia], Izmirli [Izmirli My Last Love, 2015] and Sarpıncık Feneri [The Lighthouse Family, 2020]. His novels have been translated into several languages including Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada in Indıa. His novel The Lighthouse Family was published by Penguin Random House India in 2024.

Firat Sunel is also an international lawyer and published a book called “The Law of Treaties--From Practitioner’s Perspective" (Turkish)

The author is currently the Turkish Ambassador to India, Nepal and Bhutan.