UN must face ongoing global conflicts

On Tuesday, at the 73rd U.N. General Assembly, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan severely criticized the structural problems of the U.N. itself. His well-known phrase, "The world is bigger than five," is indeed enough to summarize his attitude toward the U.N. and its established system.

In general, Erdoğan's very stance is a critique of the fact that the 193-member U.N.'s actions depend on the decisions of just five members of its Security Council. Most U.N. members already show a great support for his discourse.

This practice, though counterintuitive to the U.N.'s purpose and effectiveness, is somehow protected by the veto rights of the council members. In other words, without the U.S., China, Russia, the U.K. and France, any majority of votes become invalid. Simply put, the U.N., which claims to be the backbone of democratic principles in the world, is still administered by a quasi-monarchic coalition.

Therefore, all problems in the world – except those defined in the borders of the five member countries, cannot be fixed. For instance, the conflicts in Bosnia, Rwanda, Somalia and Palestine are a few problems that still need solutions.

The power of the five-member hegemony needs to come to an end as soon as possible. Otherwise, the U.N., the biggest global platform to defend world peace, is likely to suffer from a rapid loss of trust. Although its presence is not the only solution to all of the world's problems, it can still be a beacon of hope.

Unfortunately, the world has unfortunately lost many other global organizations that had been formed after the World Wars. We live in a world where local conflicts, migration, terrorism and wars often go beyond their borders and its effects reverberate around the world. The five leading members of the U.N. must face this alarming fact.

What will trigger the U.N. is obvious: The general assembly, which homogeneously represents all groups, regardless of their ethnic, religious, cultural or economic backgrounds, must be the final decision-maker. Their voting rights may be adjusted according to criteria, like the amount of responsibility taken in the U.N., but by doing so the five will not be the only ones responsible for finding solutions to global problems.

It is high time the U.N., which was formed after World War II to help the world make its transition to democracy, also adhered to democratic principles.