Erdal Tatli, a retired colonel from the Turkish Army, is a visiting military fellow in The Washington Institute's Turkish Research Program. Prior to his retirement, he was deputy chief of staff of NATO Rapid Deployable Corps/Istanbul, where he was responsible for supervising CM Cooperation, BUDFIN, and Plan Coordination Branches. During that assignment, he also served as the chief of civil-military cooperation (CJ9) for ISAF VI Headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Colonel Tatli graduated from the Army Military Academy in Ankara as a first lieutenant with a bachelor's degree in military science. He first saw service as a platoon and mechanized infantry company leader in Turkish Cypress and Eastern and Southeastern Turkey, and security company commander in NATO headquarters/Izmir, Turkey. After graduating from the Army Staff College and Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) College, he served as G2 and G3 in various brigades. Before being appointed to the NATO headquarters/Izmir in 1995 as the G2 planning branch chief, he was a battalion commander in southeastern Turkey.
In 1997, Colonel Tatli became the TAF representative to the MPRI mission in Sarajevo, which was responsible for training and equipping Bosnia and Herzegovina's armed forces. The following year, he was appointed to the AFSOUTH/NAPELS headquarters as land branch chief in CJ3. He was responsible for planning and executing land operations in Kosovo. From 2001 until his retirement in 2005, Colonel Tatli served as a branch chief and DCOS for NATO's Rapid Deployable Corps/Istanbul. He was awarded three NATO medals for his service in the NATO operations in Balkans and Afghanistan.
While serving in the Turkish Army, Colonel Tatli earned a bachelor's degree in law from Ankara University and master's degrees in international affairs, national and international security, management, and Turkish Revolution history from the Army and Armed Forces Staff College in Istanbul. He is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.
Colonel Tatli is fluent in Turkish, English, and French. An active athlete and musician, he is also a skilled bridge and chess player.
