Born in 1955 in Istanbul he graduated from the Lycee de Galatasaray and completed his tertiary education at Pantheon-Sorbonne where he received his PhD degree on Economic Epistemology in 1982. He is Senior Scholar at Istanbul Policy Center. As a former director at the United Nations where he spent 22 years of his professional life, Cengiz Aktar is one of the leading advocates of Turkey's integration into the EU. Since 1999 he has taught courses on various EU policies at Galatasaray University and Bahçesehir University. He is currently a columnist for daily Taraf and Today's Zaman, as well as regular commentator at Açık Radyo on EU related developments since 1999.