Ambassador Vehbi Esgel Etensel was born in Brussels in 1963.

He graduated from Ankara Tevfik Fikret High School in 1981 and was awarded a scholarship from the French Government. He completed his education at the Economics Department of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Grenoble University in 1987. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Defence Studies in London (year 2002).

He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of the Republic of Türkiye in 1988 and worked at various Departments in Ankara and abroad at the Turkish Permanent Delegation to NATO (1991-1994) and Turkish Embassies in Havana (1994-1996) and London (1998-2002).

He served as First Counselor at the Turkish Permanent Mission to the United Nations Office in Geneva from 2005 to 2009 and when he returned to Ankara, he was first Head of Department at the Policy Planning Division andthen he was tasked to establish the Translation Department of the MFA in January 2011. As a Minister Plenipotentiary, he headed the Translation Department until mid February 2013.

In February 2013 he was appointed as the Ambassador of Türkiye to the Republic of Guinea where he remained in office until August 2015. He was then appointed as the Ambassador of Türkiye to the Republic of Guatemala (with an accreditation to Belize, Honduras and El Salvador) where he served from September 2015 to November 2017. He is the founding Ambassador of both Turkish Embassies. He was awarded the Order of the Quetzal in the Grade of Grand Cross at the end of his mission in Guatemala.

Back in Ankara, he was appointed once more as Head of the Translation Department, where he served for three years and four months.

He has been appointed as Ambassador of Türkiye to the Republic of Cuba (with an accreditation to the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and Jamaica) by the Presidential Decree number 2021/113 and dated 12 February 2021.

He arrived to Havana on 3 April 2021 and assumed his duties.

He speaks French, English and Spanish. His son, Sadun Sinan, was born in 2004.