'Reform of UN Security Council is not a choice but a necessity'
Officials attend the United Nations Security Council panel, organized by Türkiye's Directorate of Communications, Paris, France, Aug. 16, 2022. (AA Photo)


Türkiye's Directorate of Communications held a panel in Paris on Tuesday to emphasize the critical need for a United Nations Security Council reform.

Many officials from Türkiye, including Deputy Director of Communications Çağatay Özdemir, attended the panel along with diplomats from the Turkish Embassy in Paris.

The panel was moderated by Washington Director of the Ankara-based Political, Economic and Social Research Foundation (SETA) Kılıç Buğra Kanat and attended by panelists Presidential Security and Foreign Policy Committee Members professor Çağrı Erhan, professor Nursin Güney as well as Association of Foreign Journalists (APE) President Elias Masboungi and Italian scholar expert Valeria Giannotta.

Kanat said that the reform of the U.N. Security Council is "not a choice but a necessity."

With the panel series, Türkiye aims to point out how the international community and international organizations faced significant challenges in the face of problems in recent years and how the international system was ineffective in addressing these challenges.

The panel also aims to push for a fairer, more democratic and more representative structure in the Security Council.

After holding panels in Italy, Argentina and France, Kanat said they plan to organize panels in 10 more countries within the next two weeks.

Erhan, for his part, told the panel that the U.N. member countries increased from 51 to 193 and the world population was up from 2.5 billion to 8 billion.

"It is clear that we need a change because the U.N. system was established for a world time times smaller than the one we live in today."

Güney, on the occasion, said there have been initiatives for the reform of the U.N. in the past, adding that the current system allows the five permanent members of the Security Council to use the veto "against human welfare" due to different national interests.

Giannotta said the current system at the Security Council has proven to be ineffective in providing security and stability to the international system and in dealing with the crisis.

The Russia-Ukraine war has proven once again "our inability as the international community to deal with the crisis," according to Giannotta.

Masboungi, meanwhile, hailed Türkiye's efforts to highlight the need for reform in the Security Council.