Ret Admiral Cem Gürdeniz

Ret Admiral Cem Gürdeniz, Writer, Geopolitical Expert, Theorist and creator of the Turkish Bluehomeland (Mavi Vatan) doctrine. A graduate of Turkish Naval Academy (BA/1979), US Naval Postgraduate School (MS/1985), Turkish Naval War College (MA/1989) and Universite Libre Bruxelles (MA/1993) , he commanded the FFG7 class guided missile frigate TCG Gaziantep in 1998-1999; Third Destroyer Division in 2002-2003 timeframes. He was promoted to Rear Admiral (LH) in 2004. He served as the Chief of Strategy Department and then the head of Plans and Policy Division in Turkish Naval Forces Headquarters. As his admiralty combat duties, he has served as the commander of Amphibious Ships Group and Mine Fleet between 2007 and 2009. He retired in 2012. He established Koç University Maritime Forum KÜDENFOR in 2015 and Hamit Naci Blue Homeland Foundation in 2021. He has published numerous books on geopolitics, maritime strategy, maritime history and maritime culture. He is founder of Turkish Maritime Digest (Yeni Deniz Mecmuası) and a regular writer of YACHT Magazine. He is also a honorary member of ATASAM.