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Dr. Cihangir Aksit, TUR CIV
The Director, NATO Standardization Agency Dr. Cihangir Aksit took up his position in July 2010. His previous 40-year military career included serving in various mountain and infantry units as a platoon leader, company, battalion, regiment, brigade and division commander, staff posts within the TUR National Defence and NATO (HQ COMLANDSOUTHEAST (Izmir), AFSOUTH (Naples)), attending Course 70 of the NATO Defence College, Rome in1987 and a posting to NATO AFSOUTH (Naples, ITA) as the CAX (Comp. Asst-exercise) Project Officer between 1991 – 1993.
In 1994 Aksit was assigned to the HQ Turkish General Staff (TGS), Ankara to serve as the Chief of the Personnel Management Branch. He played a major role in the largest innovatory projects of personnel modernization of the Turkish Armed Forces, including the initiation and establishment of Total Quality Management (TQM), the renewing of the personnel performance & evaluation system and establishing new educational-social systems for military families at military bases throughout the country. He has also attended various certificated programs in Marmara University & KALDER, such as Benchmarking, Statistical Control Techniques, ISO-9000 series, Process Development and Change Management.
Then Aksit was assigned as Commander of the Presidential Guard Regiment, Ankara for a two-year period. During this time, he applied change management and TQM to his regiment, acquiring the first ISO 9000 certificate in the Turkish Armed Forces Troops. Additionally, he wrote two books on TQM and change management based upon his experiences and lessons learned which were later issued to all units in Turkish Armed Forces. He has subsequently given many conferences and lectures, and participated in various seminars as the host/key note speaker on modern management, strategic planning and TQM at major Turkish universities (Marmara University, Hacettepe University, Başkent University, Kocaeli University) and governmental organizations (Force HQs, MOD, General Directorate of Police, Turkish Standard Institute (TSI), Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKE) - the most notable MOD enterprise, etc…).
Aksit was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General and was assigned to command the 14th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, Kars at the Turkish-Armenian border by applying the TQM at Brigade level. In September, 2001 Aksit returned to NATO as Chief of the Plans & Ops Branch (OPX), SHAPE (Mons, Belgium), for two years. In addition to the coordination of TACEVAL and OPEVAL of SHAPE, he and his team contributed to various exercises and the real world planning preparations.
Aksit was promoted to Major General in 2003 and assigned as the Chief of Training & Exercise to the Turkish General Staff, Ankara, playing a key role on major projects such as introducing a spirit of ‘fair play’ within the military and the establishment of the NATO Defence against Terrorism Centre of Excellence (DAT COE, Ankara). He personally presented and introduced the DAT COE project to the CHODs NATO Military Committee (MC/CS) and North Atlantic Council (NAC) on behalf of the Turkish General Staff. He and his team were also responsible for the establishment of the transparent strategic management/planning system in the Armed Forces in 2003 – 2005. He also managed with his staff the Turkish Partnership for Peace (PfP) Training Centre for many international courses, discussion platforms etc. including the Silk Road Flag Officer’s seminars in Ankara.
As Chief of Training and Education, he managed TGS’ training and educational efforts for all supported NATO, PfP, Med-Dialog and other nations, and initiated the CO-War Academies projects for Albania(Tirana) and Afghanistan(Kabul), followed by his role as Commander of the 15th Infantry Division 2005 where he applied the TQM and transparent strategic planning again at Divisional level. Then Aksit was assigned as the Deputy Inspector General of the Turkish Land Forces Command. He commanded 50 selected colonels and evaluated approx. 40 brigade, regiment and battalion level free live exercises. He and his teams also inspected, both administratively and operationally, various Turkish combat divisions, brigades, regiments, battalions, units including the Turkish troops at NATO/ UN bases in BOSNIA and LEBANON. Between 2007- 08, he and his team provided operational feedback to the Turkish Land Forces Command HQ.
Aksit retired in September 2008. During his service he earned seventeen military badges including combat operations, early promotion, meritorious unit command, operations success (twice), shooting, training, and superior meritorious performance etc.
He was assigned to President’s Defence Consultant in 2010 and then as the Expert Consultant to the permanent Mission of Turkey to NATO in Brussels. He was selected by NATO Nations as the Director, NSA in July 2010. He has provided a session on NATO Interoperability and Integration, Harmonization and Standardization approaches across NATO for the ISPRAT 2nd International Government CIO Knowledge Exchange, Brussels in 2010; and made keynote speeches to the DMSMS Standardization 2010 and 2011, both held in USA.
He has been awarded his PhD on "Strategic Planning and National Security Strategies (NSS)" from the Strategic Research Institute (SAREN) in Istanbul, having taken major modules from the British University of Kent in 2012.
As an author, between 2008 – 2013 Dr. Aksit has written three historical novels, published between 2009 and 2011 named ‘Sarı Sessizlik’, ‘Cigiltepe’ and ‘Savrulus’ (www.sarisessizlik.com , www.cigiltepe.com and www.savrulus.com ). He has also written many articles for various military magazines such as "Military and Monotony", "The Relation Between Military and Art", "Military and Chess" http://www.bluepoint.gen.tr/chess/chess.html , "Military and the Total Quality Management" etc. His article on "Military and Chess" has also been published by the Aegean University, faculty of Science in Izmir on their webpage. As a member of the SHAPE History Club in 2003, he also gave a conference on the “1914 Ottoman - Russian winter campaign (Sarikamis/WW1) and lessons learned” at the SHAPE auditorium in Belgium.
His other hobbies include chess, horseback riding, skiing (professional ski instructor) and oil painting. He took part in various combined painting exhibitions between 1980 and 1985 and also participated in the "Military Painters" traditional exhibitions organized in Hasan Riza Exhibition Hall / Military Museum in Istanbul from 1994 - 2007. In 1995, he participated in the traditional "OYAK Painting Competition" which is organized annually, where he was awarded the third prize. This painting is now in the collection of the MOD/TGS. His painting titled "A Still Life with Cherry, Apricot and Plum'' was also published as a reproduction by the Ministry of Defence. He has had three individual oil painting exhibitions of his work in 1975 (Istanbul), 2001 (Kars) and in 2003 (Mons). Aksit also participated in the "Turkish Painters Living in Belgium" Exhibition organized in the Brussels Royal Conservatory (Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles) 02 - 14 June 2003, celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Turkish Migration to Belgium by the Turkish Consulate.
Cihangir Aksit is married and has two children.
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