Asiyan Suleymanoglu

Aşiyan Süleymanoğlu is a Turkish lawyer, IMI Certified Mediator, and international dispute resolution specialist based in Istanbul. A member of the Istanbul Bar Association and founder of Akina Consulting, she brings nearly 20 years of experience in legal practice, mediation, negotiation, and developing alternative dispute resolution systems. She has mediated more than 2000 disputes and facilitated international contract negotiations and complex multiparty processes. Her practice encompasses commercial, workplace, institutional, and cross-border disputes. Her mediation work emphasises careful preparation, clear process design and helping parties identify practical options for agreement across different legal and cultural contexts. In 2026, she served as field mediator for the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation’s Independent Accountability Mechanism (IAM) in Türkiye. She serves on the Global Mediation Panel supporting personnel of UNDP, UN Women, UNICEF and UNOPS, and on FAO’s Global Roster of Mediators. She also holds a mediation services framework consultancy with the OPEC Fund for International Development and has been selected for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank’s Project-affected People’s Mechanism expert roster. Alongside her practice, she has contributed extensively to mediation development in Türkiye and internationally. She directed British Embassy-funded ADR programmes implemented with Türkiye’s Ministry of Justice and established the Grand Bazaar commercial mediation pilot, serving a business community of approximately 3,500 enterprises. Her advisory and training work has involved the Council of Europe, IDLO, the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative and The Asia Foundation. She has trained thousands of judges, lawyers, in-house counsel, mediators and business professionals. In August 2026, she led China’s inaugural IMI Recognised Mediator Training Programme in Beijing, developing the curriculum and assessment framework and coordinating an international faculty. She holds an LL.B. from Istanbul Bilgi University and an LL.M. in Rule of Law for Development from Loyola University Chicago. A Weinstein JAMS International Fellow, she has undertaken advanced professional development in mediation and negotiation in the United States and Europe. She works in Turkish and English.