Turkey nominates Feridun Sinirlioglu as candidate for UN Secretary General

Official nomination

Turkey has officially nominated Ambassador Feridun Sinirlioglu, who serves as Secretary General of the OSCE, as a candidate for the post of the next UN Secretary General. In a letter dated Friday, Turkey's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ahmet Yildiz, conveyed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's nomination letter to the chairs of the General Assembly and the Security Council in accordance with the UN Charter and a General Assembly resolution. Anadolu reported the news.

Ankara's motives

Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, speaking on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Atlanta, explained that the purpose of the nomination is 'a diplomatic contribution aimed at overcoming the deadlock.' According to him, Ankara had been closely following the selection process for about a year and had agreed in advance to put forward its candidate if certain conditions arose. He noted that several candidates from Latin America had been competing within the informal tradition of geographic rotation, and that Turkey respects the expectation that the next secretary general will come from that region, but the process had reached a deadlock. Fidan said the decision to nominate was made after recent developments, including the vote on the UAE candidate Lana Nusseibeh. He added that putting forward candidates from other regions amid a deadlock in the selection is not unprecedented in UN history, and stressed that the move is not merely an attempt to enter the competition.

The candidate and the selection procedure

Fidan described Sinirlioglu as an experienced career diplomat with extensive international experience, including his previous service as Turkey's Permanent Representative to the UN and his election as OSCE head in December 2024. For the reader's reference: according to the publication, a candidate must receive at least nine votes in the Security Council, and any of the five permanent members — the United States, China, France, Russia or the United Kingdom — can block a candidate with a veto; the final appointment is approved by the General Assembly, which after the Security Council's consent is usually considered a formality. The term of the current secretary general, Antonio Guterres, expires on December 31, so the outcome of Sinirlioglu's nomination will be decided within a short timeframe.