He is the first Turkish national to become the chief of an international organization working in the security field.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry has launched a new diplomacy campaign that engages the public, and as one of its first steps, it organized a video conference with Üzümcü. He participated from the Turkish Embassy in the Netherlands, where the OPCW is located.
Üzümcü is the Permanent Representative of Turkey to the United Nations in Geneva and will take up his new role in July next year on a four-year term. He is a career diplomat and former Turkish ambassador to Israel, which is one of only seven nations around the world who have not joined the chemical weapons convention. Üzümcü said that efforts to get Israel to join the organization will continue.
“There are seven countries who have not signed the agreement yet and three of them are in our area, Israel, Egypt and Syria. The others are Angola, North Korea, Myanmar and Somalia.” Üzümcü said that the last country who joined was Iraq and the organization is working on a plan to eliminate chemical weapons from this country. “The US and British forces eliminated some of them and after making plans for the rest, we will continue the elimination process,” he said.
He said that although the OPCW is a young organization, it is a very successful one since the number of members has already reached 188 countries since it was established 12 years ago and it has been able to destroy more than half the chemical weapons in the world. He said that by 2012 the member states will be totally clear of chemical weapons. “Unfortunately, although highly successful, the organization is not well known. I will work to promote it, to increase its effectiveness on many levels. I am hoping to work on those issues,” he said.
