Why does Türkiye urge restructuring of UN Security Council?

Türkiye’s director of communications has called for the UN Security Council to be restructured in order to represent continents, beliefs, origins, and cultures in the fairest manner possible. 

“Restructuring the Council in a structure representing continents, beliefs, origins, and cultures in the fairest manner possible will be a revolutionary step towards a solution and global peace,” Fahrettin Altun said in a video message at a panel discussion titled UN Security Council Reform: A New Approach to Reconstructing the International Order.

The panel was hosted by Türkiye's Directorate of Communications in Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital. 

“To ensure a just and more sustainable global peace, a UN reflecting multiculturalism is (a) must,” Altun urged. 

Noting that the UN’s “current structure, does not provide a solution to global problems but rather a stalemate,” he said: “We have witnessed how the permanent membership of the United Nations by one of the warring parties or one of the crisis parties impedes the process.”

READ MORE: Ukraine shows that the UN Security Council is in urgent need of reform

'Unable to speak out'

“The system places the United Nations on the side of its five permanent members, not the weak, the oppressed, or the righteous,” he said. “With its current organisational structure, the United Nations is unable to speak out against persecution.”

Saying that Asian, Latin American and African countries are “categorically barred from representation in the UN Security Council,” Altun recalled Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's motto: “The World is Bigger than Five.”

“(It) is an objection against oppression, injustice, and inequity. It is an objection to the functioning of the world system established by five countries and to global injustices,” he noted.

“Today, UN reform efforts require more intense negotiation than ever, and recommendations are needed on what kind of organisation the UN should be.

“But rather than just discussing it, all of this needs to be done. In order to more effectively sustain global peace and security, a new UN should be developed,” he said.

Altun urged all countries to consider Türkiye’s long-held stance on the issue.

“Our solution proposal is to adopt a perspective expressed in the saying ‘The world is bigger than five’ and focus on restructuring the UN Security Council,” he said.

READ MORE: Turkish people no longer trust European promises: Altun