(NewsInsights.org) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has repeatedly used the motto “The World is Bigger than Five“ since at least 2016, summarizing his dissatisfaction with the existing five permanent member nations of the UN Security Council structure. On October 31, presidential spokesperson Fahrettin Altun released an article for Britain’s Daily Express celebrating the nation’s 100th anniversary and reiterating Erdoğan’s viewpoint. Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, promptly dismissed any idea of a UN alternative during a press briefing.
Erdoğan has long argued that the UN Security Council’s P5 — China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States — and a rotating list of 10 additional member nations don’t adequately represent the interests of Africa, South America, or Oceania. Additionally, the Turkish leader has accused the council of making the world considerably less secure because of its frequent political infighting and gamesmanship.
Instead, Erdoğan and his proxy, Altun, have repeatedly called for a complete restructuring of the UN or an altogether different global organization focused on solving regional and international issues and resolving conflicts by deploying diplomatic and humanitarian channels. The Turkish leader sees disasters, hunger, climate change, environmental issues, and territorial disputes as opportunities for nations to work cooperatively to find resolutions.
In a recent September 2023 speech to the Security Council, Erdoğan advocated for building “a global governance architecture” to represent all world “origins, beliefs and cultures.” He believed it was the only way to attain and ensure global “peace, security, and welfare” because the current system leads to inequities and conflict.
Yet Peskov wasted no time waving off Erdoğan’s idea of creating a new global organization, insisting to reporters that the UN “remains the only and uncontested international mechanism […] despite its great inefficiency.” The Russian spokesman added any such proposal would necessitate “international consensus,” which he conjectured might be challenging to obtain given the current state of global affairs.
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