Ünal Çeviköz was born in İstanbul in 1952. He graduated from Boğaziçi University (former Robert College) with a BA degree in English Language and Literature in 1974 and in Political Science in 1978. The same year, Çeviköz started to serve at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; following his service in Ankara, he worked at the Turkish Embassy in Moscow as Second Secretary and at the Turkish Consulate General in Bregenz as Consul. After completing his duties as the Chief of Section at the East European Department of the Foreign Ministry in Ankara, he was assigned to Turkish Embassy in Sofia as the counselor of Embassy. In 1989, he was detached from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs starting a job at NATO’s International Secretariat, first at the Economics Directorate, then at the Political Directorate. He received his master’s degree in International Relations in 1993 from Brussels University. In 1994, he was commissioned with launching the NATO Information Office in Moscow. Following this, he prepared the NATO-Russia Founding Act and in 1997 he returned to his duty at Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ankara, Turkey. After completing his duty as Head of Balkan Department and then as the Deputy Director General for Caucasus and Central Asia at the Foreign Ministry in Ankara, he served as Turkey’s Ambassador between 2001-2004 to Azerbaijan and between 2004-2006 to Iraq. From 2007 to 2010, he was back in Ankara as Deputy Undersecretary for bilateral Political Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Meanwhile, in 2009, he prepared the protocols signed between Turkey and Armenia. In 2010, he was appointed as Ambassador to London. After completing his duty in the summer of 2014, he returned to Ankara. On 16 September 2014, he retired from the government service.
Having been elected as the President of the 28th General Assembly of International Maritime Organization in 2013, Ünal Çeviköz still maintains this position.
Ünal Çeviköz speaks English, French, Russian, German and Italian.