Turkish diplomat Sinirlioğlu tagged as the new OSCE Secretary General

The path to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was opened for senior Turkish diplomat Feridun Sinirlioğlu. On December 3, the OSCE Permanent Council, which convened in Vienna, unanimously decided to submit Sinirlioğlu’s position as Secretary-General for approval by the OSCE Foreign Ministers to be held on November 5-6 in Valetta, Malta.

In addition to Sinirlioğlu, the new leadership team to be submitted by the OSCE Permanent Council to the approval of the foreign ministers of the 57 OSCE member states consists of the following names: Maria Telalian, Legal Advisor and Head of the Legal Department at the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for the post of Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights; Christophe Kamp, the current Ambassador of the Netherlands to the OSCE, for the post of OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities; and Jan Braathu of Norway, the current OSCE Representative in Serbia, for the post of OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media.

There were 12 other contenders to Sinirlioğlu for the Secretary-General’s post, which has been the scene of fierce diplomatic negotiations for months, including Albanian Foreign Minister İlgi Hasani and Braathu, who has now agreed to join his staff. The decision, originally expected to be taken in September, was left to the December meeting due to a lack of consensus.

Sinirlioğlı chioce and background

Diplomatic sources point to the importance of Turkey and Greece acting together in the diplomatic compromise that paved the way for Sinirlioğlu to become OSCE Secretary General—subject to the approval of the foreign ministers.

The two countries had previously agreed to support each other’s candidates.

This is the only recent example of Western and Eastern unity in Eurasia at a time of widening tensions in the Caucasus, the Balkans, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Black Sea. The Russian-Ukrainian war is expanding, and tensions are rising in these regions.

Sinirlioğlu, who previously served in high-rank positions as the chief advisor to late President Süleyman Demirel, Turkish Ambassador to Tel Aviv, and Undersecretary of Turkish Foreign Ministry was appointed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as Afghanistan Coordinator after he retired as Permanent Representative of Türkiye to the UN in 2023. Sinirlioğlu also assumed the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs in place of Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, who temporarily left his post due to his candidacy in the 2015 elections.

Opening the way for Sinirlioğlu to become OSCE Secretary-General is also important as it is a high-level international diplomatic post that Turkey has been far away from in recent times.