By Janet Ekstract
NEW YORK – On Tuesday, Turkish officials and the Deputy Director of Communications Cagatay Ozdemir, heading up a panel in Paris, called for reform in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Diplomats from the Turkish embassy in Paris, attended along with numerous Turkish officials. Washington Director of the Ankara-based Political, Economic and Social Research Foundation (SETA) Kilic Bugera Kanat, served as panel moderator. Kanat emphasized that reform in the UNSC is “not a choice but a necessity.” The panel was attended by panelists that included Presidential Security and Foreign Policy Committee Members including Professor Cagri Erhan, a professor of international relatiions at Ankara University for 21 years and a rector at Altinbas University. Also attending was Professor Nursin Guney who heads up the Department of International Relations at Yildiz Technical University in Istanbul.
Other attendees included the Association of Foreign Journalists (APE) President Elias Masboungi and Italian scholar Valeria Giannotta. Professor Erhan echoed Kanat’s sentiments when he commented that at the time the UN was founded, the world was much less complex than it is now. Professor Guney pointed out that in the past, there were reform initiatives, explaining that the current system allows its five permanent members on the Security Council to use their veto “against human welfare” based on varying national interests. Meanwhile, scholar Giannotta concurred, saying that the current UNSC system demonstrates how ineffective it is in providing security and stability for a global system, especially in dealing with crises. Giannotta cited the Russia-Ukraine war as an example, commenting that this situation has shown “our inability as the international community to deal with the crisis.”
The goal behind the panel series is to highlight international challenges and issues that the UNSC has not addressed in an effective manner and to create a foundation for a more democratic, more representative structure in the Security Council. Kanat explained that after hosting panels in Italy, Argentina and France, that his organization will create panels in 10 additional countries in the next two weeks. APE President Elias Masboungi lauded Turkish efforts to call attention to this issue. Months earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeatedly called for reform within the UN. Erdogan cited what he labeled as unfair representation within the international body and a need to take a more critical look at global political and social challenges facing the UN in the 21st century.
