Sinan Selen

He was born Istanbul to secular parents. At the age of four years he and his parents moved to Cologne, where his parents were journalists at the German broadcast Deutsche Welle.[4] In high school he wrote for the students journal.[4] Besides he was involved as a paramedic[5] with the St. John accident assistance.[4] At the University of Cologne he studied European law.[6]

In 2000 he began his career in In the Federal Criminal Police[1] where he was assigned on the security of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder[4][5] and Minister of the Interior Otto Schily.[4] After the terrorist attacks on the twin towers in New York on the 11 September 2001 he searched for the traces the attackers left in Germany.[4][5] In July 2006 he organized the hunt of two Lebanese terrorists who placed two bombs in regional trains in the Cologne main station.[7] The attack failed as the bombs didn't explode.[7] After an extensive review of videos from surveillance cameras, one of the perpetrators was captured in the train station in Kiel.[7] Following his accomplice in Lebanon surrendered as well.[7] He entered the Ministry of the Interior in 2006 and initially his work was focused on the ban of the Salafist organization Millatu Ibrahim.[5] Until 2009 he was assigned as the head of the international counter-terrorism department.[6] Between 2009 and 2012 he was assigned to the Headquarters of the Federal Police in the counter piracy and human trafficking department.[6] From 2012 onwards he worked in the Ministry of the Interior where[6] in early 2016 he was given the task to coordinate between Turkey and Germany in terror related issues.[7] As a result he and the diplomat Emily Haber often travelled to Ankara, Turkey.[4] In their conversations with the Turkish authorities he refused to extradite members of the Gülen movement and most of the times conversed through a translator in the German language. [4] Since 2016 he was in charge of the security for the travel agency TUI.[7] In January 2019 he assumed as the Vice President of the Feder Office for the Protection of the Constitution[6] as successor of Thomas Haldenwang who was appointed the president of the VfB.[7]

His appointment to the vice-presidency of the VfB, caused concerns from the political spectrums to the left as well as to the right. The left was worried that he would cause difficulties for Kurdish sympathizers of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and left-wing Turkish political activists,[4] the rightwing accused him of being a Muslim, which he actually isn't.[4] The green party welcomed his appointment.[5]