President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan addressed the UN General Assembly on September 22. His speech contained a number of key messages, but two stood out in particular: the genocide in Gaza and the UN’s failure to act against it.
Erdoğan devoted a large part of his speech to Gaza, which he described as “the most inhumane and most shameful concentration camp of our time,” and called on UN member states to take a stand.
Addressing Israel, he recited a poem by the late, renowned Turkish poet Sezai Karakoç:
“They think that if we remain silent, the issue will disappear.
But even if we remain silent, history will not.
History may remain silent, but the truth will not.
They believe that if they get rid of us, the problem will be solved.
Yet even if they get rid of us, they would not be able to escape the pangs of their conscience.
Even if they were to escape the pangs of their conscience, they would not be able to escape the pangs of history.
Even if they were to escape the pangs of history, they would not be able to escape the wrath of Allah.”
Erdoğan’s speech drew considerable attention internationally and was discussed at length in Türkiye.
UWI author, historian and political scientist Associate Professor Mehmet Perinçek assessed Erdoğan’s remarks.
The UN doesn’t function
There is no doubt that the United Nations system doesn’t function well. The rules established with the creation of the UN after the Second World War have, in practice, ceased to function.
Why is this so? The most important reason is undoubtedly the US. Look at the attacks the US has carried out against various countries: there has been no UN decision authorizing them. Look at the unilateral embargoes and sanctions imposed by Washington: these too are completely contrary to the principles and rules of the United Nations.
Why doesn’t the UN function?
This disregard for the UN is not new; it has been a long-standing feature of US policy. But under Trump, we have seen it pushed much further. We are no longer talking merely about unilateral sanctions or the use of force against sovereign states. We are now living through a period in which heads of state are abducted and assassination attempts are carried out against national leaders. Think of Maduro, Khamenei and other Iranian leaders.
In short, if the UN system is no longer functioning, the main reason is the US and Trump. Therefore, if the aim is to restore the UN system, and, through that, achieve results on issues ranging from recognition of Palestine to defending the sovereignty of African countries, then one must take a position against American imperialism.
Erdoğan’s speech: valuable, but deficient
President Erdoğan’s speech at the UN was of course valuable. But such statements also need to be consistent with Türkiye’s foreign policy if they are to be taken seriously, produce concrete results and make a genuine contribution to the world. You cannot, on the one hand, regard Trump as Türkiye’s “best friend”, cooperate with him on everything from Syria and Palestine to the so-called Trump Route projects in the South Caucasus, deprive your own defense system of the S-400s and tie it to the F-35s, impose sanctions on Iran under Trump’s directives, close your airspace, cut relations with Iranian banks and remain silent when Ukraine attacks Turkish ships in the Black Sea, and then turn around and say that “the UN system has broken down,” “we must give support the peoples of Africa,” or “we must recognize Palestine.”
Those words lose their meaning if you refuse to name the problem, identify its source or take the steps required to solve it. Correct and admirable words alone produce no results. A president’s words must be consistent with his actions. This matters for credibility, but even more importantly, it matters if you actually want to achieve results.
Can you secure international recognition of Palestinian sovereignty while cooperating with Trump? Can you persuade the world to recognize the sovereignty of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in cooperation with Trump? Can you support the poor of Africa, peoples seeking freedom, states seeking sovereignty or countries trying to defend their sovereignty while cooperating with Trump?
Trump’s actions in his second term do not merely violate the UN order. They violate even the more backward international order that existed before the United Nations. In some respects, they represent a brutality historically even worse and backward than capitalism: seizing ships and vessels, abducting heads of state, organizing assassinations against national leaders, bombing primary schools and killing more than a hundred children.
From the UN rostrum, against the principles of the UN
Why was the United Nations established after the Second World War? It was created to prevent another world war, to provide a framework in which countries could resolve their disputes, to prevent the use of force and, where force became unavoidable, to ensure that there was a legal and political basis for it and a degree of international consensus. But when you look at figures such as Macron, Merz and Trump, you see policies moving in precisely the opposite direction from the principles on which the United Nations was founded. Instead of preventing wars, they are fueling them. They are dragging the world toward new conflicts that could prove even more devastating than a world war, result in vastly greater loss of life and perhaps even open the door to the use of nuclear weapons.
This is the contradiction: you use Ukraine against Russia and Eurasia, support Israel’s aggression, apply pressure against Iran, subject countries to sanctions, and then make speeches about all this from the UN rostrum.
If a serious stand is to be taken against this trajectory, if war is to be prevented and if the UN order is to be restored, there is only one real path forward: countries such as Türkiye, Russia, China and Iran must come together and rally the great majority of the world around them.