Timur Goksel, former Al-Monitor editor and UN diplomat, dies

Timur Goksel, a former UN diplomat who won accolades for his peace-making role at the height of tensions between Israel and Hezbollah in the 1990s, and was founding editor of Al-Monitor’s Turkey Pulse, died early Wednesday. He was 77.

Goksel, a Turkish national, succumbed to COVID-19 in a hospital in his beloved Beirut, where he had lived since his retirement from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in 2003. He is survived by his wife, Nilgun, daughter, Zeynep, and son, Emir.

At Al-Monitor, where he led Turkey coverage for eight years — growing it into one of the most widely read sources of Turkish news — Goksel will be remembered as a kindhearted, tireless and strictly principled editor.

He brought to his work a unique understanding of the Middle East and of Turkey, based on his experience as a diplomat who mastered the art of diplomacy as a respected and honest broker.