Cyprus and Greece put hard questions to Sinirlioğlu at the UN on Cypriot sovereignty and the Turkish-Libyan memorandum

Feridun Sinirlioğlu’s public examination at the UN General Assembly proved difficult. Turkey’s candidate for the post of next Secretary-General found himself on Friday, November 6, 2026 in New York facing questions from the delegations of Cyprus and Greece, which touched directly on international law, the sovereignty of the Republic of Cyprus and the illegal Turkish-Libyan memorandum.

The session was the informal dialogue the General Assembly holds with each candidate to succeed António Guterres, and the full record is on UN Web TV. Ankara formally submitted Sinirlioğlu’s candidacy on November 1.

Nicosia’s two questions

Cyprus’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Maria Michael, asked the Turkish diplomat whether he stands by the position he set out in 2022 as his country’s ambassador to the United Nations. In a letter to the Secretary-General in May 2022 he argued that the 1960 state “ceased to exist” in 1963 and that since then no common authority represents the whole island. Ms Michael asked whether he now recognises the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Cyprus, as well as its status as a UN member state.

The second question concerned the August 2023 attack on the peacekeepers in the buffer zone: whether he condemns it and whether he supports accountability for those responsible. Cyprus’s foreign ministry posted the video of the intervention on Saturday, November 7, noting that the questions remained “essentially unanswered.”

Government Spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis was sharper. In a post he wondered how anyone can aspire to lead the UN “without unequivocally recognising the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity” of a member state, concluding: “The questions were clear. The answers were not.”

The discussion comes a few days before the Cyprus talks of Monday, November 9, ahead of which Ankara insists on a “two-state solution.” Turkey continues to occupy the northern part of the Republic of Cyprus, in violation of UN resolutions.

The Greek question on the Turkish-Libyan memorandum

From the Greek side, Permanent Representative Aglaia Balta asked how the candidate’s declared commitment to good faith, international law and peaceful settlement of disputes is reconciled with positions that ignore geographical reality. As Turkey’s ambassador to the UN, Sinirlioğlu had defended Ankara’s positions on maritime zones with a letter to the Secretary-General in March 2020 that limited the rights of certain Greek islands to areas near their coasts. The 2019 Turkey-Libya memorandum, she said, is a “flagrant reshaping of geography.”

The Turkish candidate did not answer any of the questions directly. He insisted on his independence and neutrality: “My country nominated me, but I am not here as its representative,” he told Ms Balta, adding that he has shown “several times” that he can be an impartial and independent international civil servant. He also invoked Dag Hammarskjöld: “There is no neutral person, but there is, if you have integrity, neutral action.” To journalists after the session he said his only guides would be the UN Charter and international law.

Sinirlioğlu, the current Secretary General of the OSCE, served as Turkey’s Permanent Representative to the UN from 2016 to 2023 and as foreign minister in 2015.