NEW YORK (TURKISH JOURNAL) – Former Turkish ambassador to the United Nations has been appointed as the head of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s (OSCE) monitoring mission to Ukraine.
Martk Eterington (UK) and Alexander Hag (Switzerland) have become his deputies, according to OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter.
Ten advance teams have successfully deployed throughout the country to all the locations foreseen (Chernivtsi, Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Luhansk, Lviv and Odessa). Seconded monitors are joining the advance teams this week, with all deployment going according to schedule.
As of Wednesday, April 2, 2014, the total number of staff in the Special Monitoring Mission, which in a first phase will consist of 100 and may expand up to 500 monitors, has risen to 63, including Turkish observers. More than 600 applications were submitted in response to the first vacancy note. 30 participating States are currently represented in the Mission.
The OSCE decided on March 21 to send 100-500 observers to Ukraine for 6 months to monitor the situation. Adam Kobelazci (Poland) was named the head of the OSCE Conflict Prevention Center.
Ertuğrul Apakan served as Turkey’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 2009 to 2012.
