Rear Admiral (LH) H. Ilker Avci
Turkish Navy
Commander, Standing NATO Maritime Group Two
Rear Admiral (LH) H. Ilker Avci was born in Istanbul in 1980. He graduated from the Naval High School in 1997 and from the Turkish Naval Academy in 2001 with a degree in Computer Engineering.
Between 2001 and 2016, he served on frigates TCG Kocatepe (F-252), TCG Muavenet (F-250) and TCG Gediz (F-495) as Weapon Electronics Officer and Weapons Officer. From 2016 to 2019, he was the Executive Officer of frigate TCG Yavuz (F-240), and later in 2019 he assumed the Command of TCG Yavuz.
During his service, Rear Admiral Avci participated in various national and multinational activities, missions and multinational activities, missions and operations. These included NATO Operation Active Endeavour (2002, 2004), CTF-151 Counter Piracy Operations off the coast of Somalia (2011), NATO SNMG2 (2012), NATO Operation Unified Protector in Libya (2014) and NATO Operation Sea Guardian (2020), United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) (2021).
Rear Admiral (LH) Avci also took part in national maritime operations numerous times both at home and abroad, including Operation Black Sea Harmony, Operation Mediterranean Shield and the Turkish Maritime Task Group Africa deployment in 2014.
During his career, Rear Admiral (LH) Avci has worked in all levels of headquarters, from tactical to political military. In 2006, he served as the Surface Warfare and Training Officer at the Southern Task Group Command. From 2008 to 2010, he was the Executive Officer to the Deputy Chief of the Turkish General Staff, and from 2010 to 2011, he served at the Plans and Policy Directorate of the Turkish Naval Forces Command. In 2021-2022, he held the position of Section Chief of the Training and Exercises Branch in the Turkish Fleet Command. From 2022 to 2024, he served as the Joint Plans and Operations Officer at the Turkish Military Representative to NATO in Brussels, Belgium.
Recently, he worked in NATO HQ, where he actively took part in the negotiations of some important work strands at the Military Committee Working Group level.
Academically, Rear Admiral (LH) Avci completed his master's degree in International Relations at the Strategic Research Institute of the Turkish War Colleges Command in 2008. He served as an instructor of International Relations and Maritime Security at the Turkish Naval Academy from 2014 to 2016. In 2019, he completed the Command and Staff Course at the Naval War Institute of the National Defence University, and in 2021 he earned a PhD degree in International Relations from the Social Sciences Institute of Marmara University in Istanbul.
His academic interests and works include Naval Strategy, Maritime Security and International Crisis Behaviour. He was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral (Lower Half) in 2024 and appointed as the Northern Task Group Commander of the Turkish Fleet.
Rear Admiral (LH) Avci is married to Yasemin and speaks English and German.