Türkiye’s candidate running to succeed United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres faced critical questions from two of Ankara’s neighbors during an informal dialogue held on Nov. 6 in the General Assembly as part of the selection process to name the next UN boss.

The diplomat from Greece, an extensive maritime country that shares a long sea border with Türkiye; and Cyprus, an island nation also in Europe and located south of Türkiye, separately questioned Feridun Sinirlioglu on his adherence to upholding international law and territorial integrity as demanded by the UN Charter, amid his country’s apparent past disregard for those tenets.

“How do you recognize your stated commitment to good faith, international law and peaceful settlement with having defended claims that disregard geographical reality and constitute a flagrant violation of international law, generating sustained tension in the Eastern Mediterranean?” the permanent representative of Greece, Aglaia Balta, asked.

Similarly, the representative of Cyprus asked Sinirlioglu, who now heads the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE, if he still maintains his 2022 position that Cyprus had ceased to exist legally in 1963. Sinirlioglu was Türkiye’s permanent representative to the UN in 2022.

“Do you now recognize [Cyprus] sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and its status as a UN member state?” Ambassador Maria Michail asked.

Sinirlioglu responded to both ambassadors with assurances of independence and neutrality, saying he would act in accordance with the UN Charter if selected to lead the organization. Yet he deflected from answering the questions directly.

The latest two entrants in the secretary-general race, which has dragged on for much of this year, have been forced to answer tough questions regarding the behaviors of their own countries’ commitments to human rights, international law and territorial integrity, some of the main pillars of the organization they are seeking to lead.

Sinirlioglu has worked in diplomacy for four decades. Before his job with the OSCE, he was the UN special coordinator for the Security Council-mandated independent assessment on Afghanistan (2023-2024); permanent representative of Türkiye to the UN (2016–2023); minister of foreign affairs (2015) and permanent undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2009-2015). He officially entered the UN secretary-general race on Oct. 30.

Lana Nusseibeh, the other late entrant to the race and a candidate of the United Arab Emirates, faced similar hard-hitting questions during her informal dialogue with the General Assembly in October. At the session, she deflected queries from diplomats and civil society about her country’s involvement in the Sudan war, suggesting the answers should come from the UAE and not from her as she had stepped down from her post in the foreign ministry to focus on her UN campaign.

The 2022 letter that the Cypriot diplomat was referring to posited that the original Cyprus state collapsed when Turkish Cypriots were expelled from its institutions. That position conflicts with the Security Council’s longstanding settlement framework for a bizonal, bicommunal federation of Cyprus with political equality, one sovereignty, one international personality and one citizenship.

Cyprus is a UN member state, and only Türkiye recognizes the self-declared state that nearly splits the island in two and that the Turkish Cypriots call the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Michail also asked whether Sinirlioglu condemned the August 2023 military and security attack on UN peacekeepers in Cyprus in an ethnically mixed neighborhood inside the buffer zone, and whether he supported accountability for the violence. Several peacekeepers were injured while blocking unauthorized road construction by the Turkish Cypriot side.

Sinirlioglu said the UN Charter would guide his work and quoted former Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold on personal convictions and impartial conduct.

“There is no neutral man, but there is, if you have integrity, neutral action,” he said, quoting the Swede, who died in 1961.

Balta of Greece questioned Sinirlioglu on the 2019 memorandum of understanding between Türkiye and Libya on maritime delimitations, saying his country’s past position — as the permanent representative of his country to UN at the time — disregarded Greek islands and their entitlement to generate maritime zones beyond territorial waters, calling the agreement “a blatant refashioning of geography.”

The issue raised concerns regarding rights to offshore resources and jurisdictions across the Eastern Mediterranean. Athens said at the time that the agreement infringes areas generated by Greek islands. The European Union has said the memorandum violates third states’ sovereign rights, does not comply with the law of the sea and cannot produce legal consequences for them.

Sinirlioglu defended Ankara’s position when he was its UN envoy and sent letter to the UN secretary-general, dated March 18, 2020, arguing that certain islands should give Greece rights that are close only to their shores, leaving more of the offshore area within Ankara’s jurisdiction.

“I have been nominated by my country, but I am not here as representative of my country,” Sinirlioglu replied to Balta on Nov. 6 in the General Assembly dialogue, adding that his national identity has not prevented him from delivering his responsibilities as an international civil servant, including his current role in the OSCE.

“I also have proven several times that I can be an impartial, independent international civil servant,” he said.

After his dialogue, Sinirlioglu spoke to reporters, who also asked him about his ability to be neutral as UN secretary-general.

His response: “The only thing that will guide me will be the Charter of the United Nations and the international law.”

Ilgin Yorulmaz contributed reporting to this article.