| Jānis Jurkāns | |
| Office: | Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia |
| Term Start: | 22 May 1990 |
| Term End: | 10 November 1992 |
| President: | Anatolijs Gorbunovs |
| Primeminister: | Ivars Godmanis |
| Predecessor: | Anatols Dinbergs (as head of the Latvian diplomatic service in exile) Vilhelms Munters (1940) |
| Successor: | Georgs Andrejevs |
| Birth Date: | 31 August 1946 |
| Birth Place: | Riga, Latvian SSR, Soviet Union (now Latvia) |
| Party: | National Harmony Party |
| Otherparty: | 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).
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.