Turkish WHO director nominated for top UN health post

Turkey is nominating a Turkish World Health Organisation director for the UN health agency’s next director-general, the Foreign Ministry said today.

The WHO is scheduled to elect a new director-general in November to replace South Korea’s Lee Jong-wook who died suddenly in May aged 61.

The ministry said it was nominating Tomris Turmen, a 62-year old WHO executive director for family and community health.

A formal application was made in Geneva today, it said.

The ministry statement said Turmen was “able to display a global approach and solutions to problems at a time when health problems have reached new and complex heights”.