Following the Cold War, significant global changes occurred, with one of the most notable being the United States assuming the role of the world's sole gendarmerie, accompanied by a series of unlawful acts.
During the Cold War, any country initiating a war or invading another had to provide justifications, but in the post-Cold War era, the U.S. appeared to freely engage in military interventions by shaping public perception through media and securing the United Nations' approval. This uncontrolled ascent of the U.S. post-Cold War can be marked in three typical invasion cases.
The first case was Iraq, where the U.S. invaded, alleging that Iraq's former leader Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. This unjust occupation by the U.S. did not bring peace to Iraq after Saddam left.
Iraq was primarily divided socially into Shiites and Sunnis. Then, the Kurds declared an autonomous government in their own region. Iran ensured the American occupation to be permanent by keeping Iraq in a constantly chaotic climate. Although the enemy of Iraq seemed to be the U.S., it was clear here that Iran did not have very friendly thoughts about Iraq either, keeping its neighbor in sustainable instability.
The Iraq War resulted in the loss of nearly 500,000 lives, millions of exiles, and the disability of a million people. Even though many years have passed, Iraq, as a state, is still putting a sizable effort into creating a national identity and to maintain its own security and tradition. In short, the unjust occupation of the U.S. brought nothing but pain, chaos and unrest to Iraq.
The second invasion of the U.S. took place in Afghanistan. What happened in Afghanistan was much worse than in Iraq. Afghanistan, which had already spent decades in war, was also subjected to U.S. occupation, which further deepened the corrupt social and state order with the constant state of conflict. The U.S. eventually left, leaving hundreds of thousands of casualties, disabled people and a devastated country behind, handing it over to the Taliban, whom it had come 20 years ago to fight with.
And again, the reason the U.S. carried out major attacks on Yemen was the hypothesis that al-Qaida was nestled there. And, as we all know, after 9/11, the U.S. started an inhumane practice in Guantanamo, gathering so-called al-Qaida members from around the globe, just like colonial-era slaves. The U.S. brutally tortured people in orange jumpsuits, with their hands tied, under the sun. It was later discovered that most people imprisoned unlawfully in this geography outside American jurisdiction were innocent. An outright crime against humanity was committed.
I mention all these for a reason: The U.S. received visas from the U.N. for all the countries it occupied, and the U.N., in a way, lost its function after the Cold War and turned into an institution that facilitates and legalizes U.S. occupations, and supports its unfair initiatives on Earth.
At first, the dysfunction of the U.N. seemed in favor of the U.S. However, more dysfunction of the U.N. today gives the appearance of a useless institution, which will also be dysfunctional in the event of a probable China-U.S. conflict tomorrow, like in the Russia-Ukraine War.
While the function of the U.N. is fading away, it is riveting that the role of Türkiye and Erdoğan in global diplomacy is increasing.
It is yet fresh in the memories that in the early days of the Russia-Ukraine War, all the global leaders, from the U.S. to Germany, from Greece to Arabic countries, had one-on-one meetings with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan because he was the only leader left in the world who could talk to both the Western Front and Russia in equal proximity.
When there is an issue anywhere in the world, the problems that arise in Africa or in the Caucasus, such as the opening of the grain corridor and the access of oppressed people to food, or like the Azerbaijan/Karabakh-Armenia War, Türkiye is a direct party to the issue, where President Erdoğan is the one who intervenes or becomes a mediator.
India, which hosted the latest G-20 summit, is one of the most populous and largest countries globally. Despite this, in the program where Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attend, the leader almost all participants eagerly wanted to meet and talk with was President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Of course, Türkiye's historical mission is significant, and there is a 600-year-old tradition dating back to the Ottoman Empire. Türkiye is a state that has reigned between 100 and 200 years in half of the countries in the region and ruled for 400 years in many of them. Erdoğan represents that state today. New Türkiye's development, sophistication, size of its economy, Erdoğan's leadership and the global leadership experience it has accumulated over 20 years are added to Türkiye's historical mission.
All of the above indicates that it is as if Erdoğan is fortifying the void of the old, collapsed and dysfunctional United Nations in the world.
