Turkey PM: UN Security Council reform is inevitable

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim today called for the United Nations Security Council to reform due to its ineffectiveness and lack of action in the Syrian conflict.

Speaking at the 6th Global Baku Forum in Baku, Azerbaijan, Yildirim said: “The UN Security Council is unable to give the necessary response to rivalries while humanity is dying and chemical gas [weapons] are being used and is unable to end this violence.”

Earlier this month, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed the UN Security Council following a vote on a 30-day ceasefire in Syria, accusing it of “inaction”.

What is the meaning of a decision that has not been implemented? You are deceiving humanity, you are cheating.

This is not the first time Turkey has accused the UN Security Council of not taking action in particular with regards the Syrian conflict which has now entered its eighth year.

To date, there has been little concerted physical effort by the UN to punish the Assad regime for its numerous uses of chemical weapons and its indiscriminate killing of civilians.

Read: Turkey says UN Security Council should end ‘massacre’ in Syria’s Ghouta

This is primarily due to the fact that the five permanent members of the UN Security Council have the power to veto any firm resolution they oppose. Both Russia and China, which support the Assad regime, have vetoed proposed sanctions on the Syrian government, making such actions impossible.

The solution, Erdogan suggested in 2016, is for the UN Security Council to be reformed and for the permanent membership to be abolished. Instead, he proposed, there should be fixed term elections to ensure fairness in international representation. He also pointed out that “no African, no Muslim countries are among them. This disparity between the continents runs counter to the principles of justice.”

Prime Minister Yildirim arrived in Azerbaijan yesterday and held bilateral meetings with a number of Azeri officials, as well as having a joint meeting with the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Iran on the “One Belt One Road” initiative to revive the historic Silk Road.