Turkey sends key diplomat Sinirlioğlu to New York as new envoy to UN

Emine Kart - ANKARA

Feridun Sinirlioğlu

A long-awaited governmental decree involving a significant reshuffle of key ambassadorial posts is finally set to go into force, as Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has already begun personally informing the ambassadors subject to the reshuffle of their reassignment.

Accordingly, Feridun Sinirlioğlu, who has been the undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry in Ankara since August 2009 and who has been involved in several key international and regional affairs, has become Turkey’s new permanent representative at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

Sinirlioğlu will replace Ambassador Halit Çevik, who has served as the permanent representative of the Turkish mission to the U.N. since October 2012.

The appointments were verbally notified to the ambassadors by Çavuşoğlu, but the official process will follow after being published in the Official Gazette.

The decree will be published in the Official Gazette only after the host states grant their agrément to the appointments.


Candidates to replace Sinirlioğlu

Sinirlioğlu could be replaced by the outgoing envoy to Russia, Ümit Yardım, or the outgoing ambassador to Rome, Adnan Sezgin.

The names of Deputy Undersecretary Ahmet Murat Gün and Deputy Undersecretary Ümit Yalçın are also being cited as a possible successor to Sinirlioğlu.

Days after recalling its ambassador to Germany, Hüseyin Avni Karslıoğlu, upon the Bundestag’s approval of a bill describing the mass killings of Anatolian Armenians during the World War I as “genocide,” Ankara decided to make outgoing Deputy Undersecretary Ali Kemal Aydın its new envoy in Berlin, according to diplomatic sources.

Deputy Foreign Minister Naci Koru, an architect of the EU-Turkey readmission agreement, has been appointed as the chief of Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) and other international organizations in Switzerland.

Koru will replace Ambassador Mehmet Ferden Çarıkçı.

Ambassador Hüseyin Diriöz, who has in the past served at key posts such as the chief foreign policy adviser to the Turkish president and as NATO assistant secretary general for defense policy and planning, has been posted as Turkey’s new envoy to Moscow. Diriöz will replace Yardım, who was posted to the Russian capital in October 2014.

Turkey’s current ambassador in Baghdad, Faruk Kaymakçı, is set to take over from Ambassador Selim Yenel as the head of the permanent delegation of Turkey to the EU in Brussels. Ambassador Fatih Yıldız will replace Kaymakçı.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry at the headquarters, Tanju Bilgiç, has been appointed as an ambassador for the first time. Bilgiç will serve as Turkey’s envoy to Belgrade.

Another name from Çavuşoğlu’s inner circle, İlhan Saygılı, who was acting as a chief adviser to the minister, will become Turkey’s new ambassador to Switzerland and will take over from Ambassador Mehmet Gücük, who has been in Bern since 2014.

Foreign Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Murat Salim Esenli will become Turkey’s ambassador to Italy, replacing Sezgin, who has been in Rome since September 2014.

Foreign Ministry Director-General for the Middle East and North Africa Can Dizdar was assigned as ambassador to the United Arab Emirates. 

Dizdar will replace Ambassador Mustafa Levent Bilgen, who assumed his duties in Abu Dhabi in December 2014.

Foreign Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Levent Murat Burhan will become ambassador to Ireland.

According to diplomatic sources, EU Ministry Undersecretary Rauf Engin Soysal is set to serve as the permanent representative of Turkey to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

Turkey’s former representative to the OSCE, Ambassador Tacan İldem, was appointed as NATO’s assistant secretary general for public diplomacy in March 2016, after having served as Soysal’s predecessor from June 2011 to February 2016.

Foreign Ministry Bilateral Political Relations Director-General Hulusi Kılıç will become ambassador to Moldova while Tunç Üğdül, the Foreign Ministry’s research and security affairs chief, was appointed as ambassador to Poland. Aslıgül Üğdül will become Turkey’s ambassador to Slovakia.

Sources also said the Prime Ministry’s current undersecretary, Kemal Madenoğlu, will replace Ambassador Haluk Ilıcak, who has been serving as permanent representative of Turkey to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva since March 2014.