TURKEY GAINING POINTS IN THE WEST
Turkey is a candidate for a non-permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council for 2009-10. There were about 60 founding members and 30 newly independent states when Turkey was a non-permanent member of the Security Council in 1951-52,1954-55 and 1961. Today, the U.N. has 192 member states and membership to the Security Council is more complicated. Austria and Iceland are the other two candidates in the same group with Turkey. Iceland has never been a member, yet is a handicap for us; besides, these countries may get European and North American support, which will make membership a bit more difficult for us. However the odds can be overcome if the government meets the candidacy requirements adequately.
The current approach, though, gives the impression that the government regards the membership as a matter of prestige rather than of being a responsible international actor. Lobbying activities conducted in countries that will vote in the upcoming General Assembly this autumn give a feeling that Turkey considers the issue from a purely bilateral perspective, as though being selected to the Security Council is one thing and compliance with U.N. principles is something else. Bilateral endeavors versus multilateral failures
Turkey is on the way to becoming a new donor country as its foreign aid record is becoming meaningful. Contributions in cash and in kind are gradually mounting up through the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) and other sources. The figure for 2006 stands at around $1 billion. Although there are no clear-cut statistics about donations, Turkey makes quite a name for itself. However, the system is closely based on bilateralism. What is critical here is that the government is having difficulty matching these lobbying activities with its international obligations within the U.N. system. Let me give you four key examples:
The international community describes the human sufferings taking place for years in Darfur as genocide, with the exception of Khartoum, its faithful oil customer Beijing and Ankara! Indeed Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a trip to Sudan in 2005, said the massacres of African Muslims were not genocide. And Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir,who is boycotted internationally, recently had a red-carpet reception in Ankara. How on earth can countries of Africa forget such arrogance while we lobby the U.N. General Assembly for a vote in our favor?
Secondly, despite promises made since 2004, Turkey still has not ratified the Rome Statute of the U.N. Criminal Court (ICC) by saying cases would possibly be filed in the ICC against Turkish military commanders as part of counter-terrorism efforts. A very influential international non-governmental coalition there will lobby for the approval of the Rome Statute.
Thirdly, Turkey has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol, a U.N. initiative to stop climate change. Its involvement in the meetings for a post-Kyoto agreement that will take effect after 2012 was quite low-key. By and large the government falls short of showing interest in environmental issues, contrary to the rising awareness and concern of the international community.
And the Human Rights record of Turkey is the fourth handicap. Evidently, Turkey is having a hard time complying with the requirements of the Labor Organization (ILO) conventions as well as the U.N. Human Rights conventions.Turkey's track record is not so bright on the issues that the international community is very sensitive about, such as refugees and internally displaced persons. The most startling example here is the extremely harsh attitude the government adopted against the Iraqi refugees who were trying to hold on to their lives
In fact, the government's problematic multilateralism is quite similar to the approach of the oil-rich Middle Eastern governments toward the U.N. and international organizations, regarded as the fifth columns of the hostile West, thus undermining them.
It is in fact not easy to act "international," despite pretensions to becoming a central actor in world affairs. In order to deserve to have a seat on the U.N. Security Council, Turkey has to say "better to lose the saddle than the horse," adopt proactive pro-U.N. policies and complete half-finished works in the course of this year.
TURKEY GAINING POINTS IN THE WEST
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