The Hay Dat party called on UN Security Council members to reject Feridun Sinirlioglu`s candidacy for the post of UN Secretary-General.

ArmInfo. The Hay Dat Central Council issued a statement calling on members of the UN Security Council and the governments of all UN member states to reject Turkey's nomination of Feridun Sinirlioglu for the post of UN Secretary-General.

The Hay Dat statement, received by ArmInfo, emphasizes that the Secretary-General must be an impartial defender of the UN Charter and the world's leading voice against mass atrocities.

"Sinirlioglu's activities demonstrate the opposite: for decades, he has promoted the political agenda of the Turkish government, including the denial of the Armenian Genocide in documents distributed within the UN itself. On October 16, 2020, as Turkey's Permanent Representative to the UN, Sinirlioglu signed a letter addressed to the Secretary-General (UN document A/75/525-S/2020/1024), in which he argued that the events of 1915 did not constitute genocide and remained a subject of "legitimate debate." He sent the letter in the third week of Azerbaijan's offensive on Artsakh, calling the "baseless" "reports of foreign fighters in the conflict zone, although Russia, France, and the United States have already confirmed the deployment of Syrian mercenaries there," the statement reads.

The statement also notes that the same letter from Sinirlioglu, without any evidence, accused Armenian diaspora organizations of transporting fighters to the front "under the guise of charity," and three years later, more than 100,000 Armenians were forcibly displaced from Artsakh.

"This was not an isolated incident. In 2010, as Deputy

Turkish Foreign Minister, Sinirlioglu traveled to Washington to

lobby against a US House of Representatives resolution

recognizing the Armenian Genocide. His ministry later accused

the Constitutional Court of Armenia of imposing "preconditions" on the Armenian-Turkish protocols, which served as a pretext for Ankara to block their ratification. In July 2026, as OSCE Secretary General, Sinirlioglu, in a conversation he believed he had with the Armenian Prime Minister, stated that he would "examine" how the OSCE could support the removal of the Catholicos of All Armenians. Four international organizations defending human rights and religious freedom condemned these statements as incompatible with his position and called on him to retract them, Hay Dat further noted.

The diaspora organization expressed its conviction that Sinirlioglu is incapable of maintaining the political neutrality required by the position of UN Secretary General. The statement recalls that he is widely known as a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, personally appointed by him.

"Article 100 of the UN Charter prohibits the Secretary-General from seeking or receiving instructions from any government. Yet, in almost every crisis facing the next Secretary-General, his own government is a party to the conflict or a major player: Cyprus, the South Caucasus, Syria, Ukraine. Turkey continues to occupy more than a third of the territory of Cyprus, a UN member state, in violation of Security Council resolutions. At the same time, it is the Secretary-General who must lead the peaceful resolution of these conflicts. On the issue of the Genocide Convention, the Secretary-General speaks for the entire world. The UN cannot be led by a man who denied genocide in an official letter circulated within the UN and has dedicated his entire career to silencing the truth about the first genocide of the 20th century." "His appointment to the highest post at the UN would send a devastating signal to all survivors of mass atrocities," Hai Dat continued.

Considering the above, Hai Dat called on Security Council members, particularly permanent members, not to support Sinirlioglu's candidacy in either a formal vote or a formal nomination to the Council.

Furthermore, Hai Dat called on Security Council members to insist to all UN Member States that the next Secretary-General has a proven track record of unequivocal commitment to the prevention of genocide and the independence required by Article 100.

"We stand in solidarity with those governments, communities, and civil society organizations that have expressed concern about this candidacy. We call on Armenians around the world and friends of the Armenian people to contact their governments and elected representatives to prevent this appointment," Hay Dat concluded.