Çiftçi was born in Batman in 1968. He earned his undergraduate degree from the Department of Sociology of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Public Administration at the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences at the Middle East Technical University. He completed his master’s degree in Political Science and Public Administration at the Institute of Social Sciences at METU. As an expert is in political sociology, Çiftçi worked in the fields of women, children, development, disaster preparedness, post-disaster rehabilitation, civil society capacity building, results-oriented monitoring and evaluation, social impact, migration, social exclusion and inclusion, poverty and culture at various public organisations, local administrations and civil society organisations. He worked on humanitarian aid activities following the Marmara, Düzce, Afyon, Bingöl earthquakes in Turkey and the Bam earthquake in Iran. Çiftçi has worked on capacity building for community-based and rights-based activities, social inclusion and social policy implementation for poor, deprived and vulnerable groups and the development of the civil field and developed participatory methods. Between 2012-2020, he developed innovative and participatory support programmes for civil society. He worked as the team leader of the European Union Sivil Düşün Programme. He produced various publications on civil society policies and practices. Çiftçi was the team leader for the Civil Society Dialogue and Civil Society Support Programme of the Directorate for EU Affairs. He is currently the response lead for the OXFAM KEDV Türkiye Earthquake Programme.