Turkey's president on Thursday called for serious reform of the United Nations Security Council, which he said should have representation from countries on all the world's continents.
Speaking at the closing session of the TRT World Forum in Istanbul, which Anadolu Agency is global communication partner for, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said: “We need to achieve a United Nations Security Council with participation from seven continents.”
“The era of five permanent members [on the UNSC] is over," he said, arguing that the present arrangement comes from "the circumstances of World War II."
But, he said: "We are not living under the same circumstances. It is time to make a new transition and a new change [at the UN].”
"The UN needs serious reform," he added.
The UN has yet to respond to the quest for justice, the Turkish president said, citing as an example UN inaction on the Palestinian issue.
"Is the Palestinian issue resolvable?" he asked rhetorically.
"Why not? Because there are many decisions taken against Israel at the UN, but none of them is implementable."
UN resolutions condemning unjust actions by Israel have frequently faced vetoes in the Security Council.
Turkey has repeatedly objected to U.S. support for the terrorist PKK/PYD as a "reliable ally" in Syria, which has included supplying arms and equipment.
On Turkish troops’ presence in Syria, Erdoğan said: “The people of Syrian invited us there. ‘Come here to save us,’ they said.”
He said this was the case in the Syrian cities of Idlib and Afrin. Turkey will continue to support the oppressed people in Syria, he added.
Erdoğan said that Turkey will leave Syria only when the Syrian people have held an election in peace.
On Jan. 20, Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch to remove YPG/PKK and Daesh terrorists from Afrin, near the Turkish border. On March 18, Turkish troops and the Free Syrian Army liberated the Afrin district center.
Following a meeting in Sochi, Russia, last month between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, the two countries agreed to establish a demilitarized zone in Idlib, Syria’s last opposition stronghold.
Ankara and Moscow also signed a memorandum of understanding calling for the “stabilization” of Idlib's de-escalation zone, in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.