Jānis Jurkāns

Latvian politician

Jānis Jurkāns
Jurkāns in 2002

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia
In office 22 May 1990 – 10 November 1992
President	Anatolijs Gorbunovs
Prime Minister	Ivars Godmanis
Preceded by	Anatols Dinbergs (as head of the Latvian diplomatic service in exile) Vilhelms Munters (1940)
Succeeded by	Georgs Andrejevs

Personal details
Born	(1946-08-31) 31 August 1946 (age 77) Riga, Latvian SSR, Soviet Union (now Latvia)
Political party	National Harmony Party
Other political affiliations	Popular Front of Latvia
Alma mater	Latvian State University

Jānis Jurkāns (born 31 August 1946) is a Latvian politician, one of the leaders of the Popular Front of Latvia, who served as foreign minister (1990–1992).

Biography

Jānis Jurkāns was born in 1946 into a family with Polish-Latvian roots.^[1] In 1974 Jurkāns graduated from the Latvian State University, majoring in English. He worked as a lecturer from 1974 to 1978. In 1989 he became an activist of the Popular Front. Jurkāns was Minister of Foreign Affairs in Latvia, 1990–1992. In 1992, Janis Jurkāns, together with 9 other Baltic Ministers of Foreign Affairs and an EU commissioner, founded the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) and the EuroFaculty.^[2]

He resigned in 1992 due to opposition to the Latvian citizenship law, that in his view threatened social harmony in the country; he also rejected territorial claims to the Abrene district.^[3]^[4] In 1994, Jurkāns founded the National Harmony Party and was the chairman of the party's faction in the Saeima (1994–1996; 1997–1998) and later of the parliamentary faction of the For Human Rights in United Latvia alliance. He was a deputy in the V, VI, VII and VIII convocations of the Saeima (1993–2006). In 2002, he visited Moscow and met Vladimir Putin, who expressed support for Jurkāns's policies.^[5] In 2005 he distanced himself from politics, concentrating on the logistics corporation "Baltijas asociācija – transports un loģistika".^[6] Nevertheless, he participated in the 2011 Latvian parliamentary election as a Latvia's First Party/Latvian Way candidate and was a potential candidate for foreign minister; however, he failed to get elected. Supporter of Crimea's annexation by Russia.^[7]

Jānis Jurkāns is divorced, and has two sons.

Footnotes

^ Krzysztof Szczepanik, Stanisław Tarasiewicz, Los Polaka o nazwisku Jurkans, czyli Zacharewicz, "Kurier Wileński", nr 65 (15862) z 7 kwietnia 2008
^ Kristensen, Gustav N. 2010. Born into a Dream. EuroFaculty and the Council of the Baltic Sea States. Berliner Wissentshafts-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8305-1769-6.
^ Отставка министра иностранных дел Латвии // Kommersant, No. 20 (173), 28 October 1992
^ Голосование о доверии кабинету в Латвии // Kommersant, No. 15 (168), 22 October 1992
^ Зайцев В. Правящая партия в Латвии проиграла // Независимая газета, 7 октября 2002
^ "Jurkans Janis Quits Politics". Archived from the original on 2007-03-15. Retrieved 2010-10-03.
^ «Экс-глава МИД Латвии поддержал присоединение Крыма к России». ria.ru, 9 Jan 2015.