Erdogan's Call For UNSC Expansion Aims At Int'l Self-Promotion - Turkish Opposition Party

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th October, 2021) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's statement on the need to expand the UN Security Council is unrealistic and aimed at international self-promotion, President of the Turkish Innovation Party, Ozturk Yilmaz, told Sputnik on Tuesday.

During his trip to Angola on Monday, Erdogan said the fate of the world should not be decided by a "handful" of countries that won in the Second World War, in reference to the five permanent members (P5) of the council. The five permanent members of the council are China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

"Erdogan has been reiterating his rhetoric to expand the number of members of the UN Security Council over two years. But I don't see it (as) realistic for the moment.

I don't think any country which constitutes the P5 will accept this," Yilmaz said.

The Turkish president "has been playing on the demand or frustration of those countries who have been asking for change in the security council to get self-promotion in the international arena, to let people know that he is working for them, for their interests," Yilmaz added.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, when commenting on Erdogan's statement, that he agreed with the Turkish president in that the five permanent members have no right to dictate their will to other countries. At the same time, Lavrov added that the security council did not presume to dictate anything, and did only what was written down in UN rules.