Erdogan's Ambitions have Reached to the UN

• 10.28.2016, 16:37
•  Region,  Near East,  World

A. Altan / AFP / Getty images

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ambitions are growing not only in regard with regional issues but also international. Thus, Erdogan, who regularly criticizes the UN, because there is no Islamic state among the permanent members of the  Security Council, in his message marking the 71st anniversary of the foundation of the UN called for the UN to move its headquarters to Istanbul. Erdogan said it will contribute to the realization of the UN mission and goals.

It should be noted, that the UN main aim is to strengthen world peace and security. It is difficult to say, how the deployment of the headquarters of the organization in the country, which is in the 145th place among 163 countries in the "World Peace Index", will contribute to the realization of this mission.

Turkey has problems with at least 4 from 8 neighboring countries. Thus, Turkey is carrying out a military operation in Syria without the consent of the legitimate government of that country. The official  reason of the military actions is fight against terrorism. But today Ankara announced the first clashes with the forces of President Assad in Ankara: from the first day of the Syrian conflict Ankara demands from the Syrian President to step down, insisting that Assad is a dictator(!).

Turkey's contradictions with Iraq also refer to Turkey's intervention in the internal affairs of that country: without Baghdad's consent Turkey deployed its troops in Iraq, which is a violation of the sovereignty of Iraq. In response to the requirements of Baghdad to withdraw its troops from Iraq, Ankara announced that troops will remain in Iraq as long as necessary.

Turkey has no diplomatic relations with Armenia. The border between the two countries is closed because of the issue of recognition of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Empire, as well as Karabakh conflict. Dispute with Greece is connected with the Cyprus problem: Turkey occupied Turkish part of Cyprus in 1974.

Although there aren't similar problems with Iran, relations between the two countries can hardly be considered friendly. Iran and Turkey are fighting for regional hegemony.

It should be noted, that Turkey has contradictions and complicated relations not only with neighboring countries: Turkey now has a strained relationship with the US, Egypt, Austria, Germany and the EU. Turkey recently had a crisis in relations with Russia and Israel, but lately they have been regulated.

Returning to internal political situation in Turkey, it should be noted, that it is more than a year in fact there is a civil war in Turkey - it carries out military operations against the Kurds in the southeastern provinces of the country. At the same time after the military coup attempt in the country the authorities launched an unprecedented repression: after the coup, 100 thousands of people were fired from work, another 35 thousand were arrested.

Turkey has recently raised serious concerns in the international community in terms of democratic regressions. In the annual index of the world's freedom by Freedom House- Turkey is one of the countries recording the biggest backward of the year. Turkey is the last in Europe in press freedom index, ranking 42th and it is in the 159th place in the world.

Taking into consideration all these facts, Erdogan's statement seems to be at least absurd.