Jānis Jurkāns (born on 31 August 1946 in Riga, Latvian SSR) is a Latvian politician, one of the leaders of the Latvian Popular Front, 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 the foreign minister of Latvia (1990–1992). He resigned in 1992 due to opposition to the Latvian citizenship law, that in his view menaced the civic concord in Latvia; he also rejected territorial claims to the Abrene district.[2][3] In 1994, Jurkāns founded the National Harmony Party and was the chairman of the party's faction in Seima (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 Seima (1993–2006). In 2002, he visited Moscow and met Vladimir Putin, who expressed support for Jurkāns's policies.[4] In 2005 he distanced himself from politics, concentrating on the logistics corporation "Baltijas asociācija – transports un loģistika".[5]
Jānis Jurkāns is married with two sons.