President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is set to address the United Nations General Assembly for the 16th time on Tuesday, bringing Türkiye’s positions on global conflicts, U.N. reform and regional crises to world leaders gathering in New York.

The 81st session’s General Debate will begin Sept. 22 and run through Sept. 28 under the theme "Restoring trust, managing transformation: A United Nations that delivers for all.”

Erdoğan’s latest appearance will add another chapter to more than two decades of speeches at the U.N., where he has repeatedly called for reform of the international system while addressing issues ranging from Palestine and Syria to terrorism, migration, the Russia-Ukraine war and Cyprus.

His first General Assembly appearance came as prime minister in 2005, when he called for a more democratic and transparent U.N. capable of better representing the will of its members.

"First and foremost, a renewed, more democratic and transparent United Nations that is capable of representing the common will of all its members ... is in the common interest of humanity,” Erdoğan said at the time.

He also used the speech to call for stronger international cooperation against terrorism, describing terrorism anywhere in the world as a crime against humanity.

By 2009, reform of the U.N. and particularly its Security Council had emerged as a central theme of Erdoğan’s addresses.

He argued that strengthening the organization’s representative capacity was essential for global peace and stability and said broader U.N. reform could not be considered complete without changes to the Security Council.

‘World is bigger than five’

That argument later developed into one of Erdoğan’s best-known foreign policy slogans: "The world is bigger than five,” a reference to the five permanent members of the Security Council, including China, France, Russia, Britain and the United States and their veto powers.

At the 2014 General Assembly, Erdoğan criticized the international system’s response to conflicts in Syria and Palestine and argued that decisions affecting the international community should not depend on the positions of five countries.

"The world is bigger than five,” Erdoğan said, arguing that the ability of the permanent Security Council members to block action was incompatible with what he described as the demands of the global conscience.

The slogan has since become a recurring element of Türkiye’s calls for U.N. reform and a more representative international decision-making system.

Erdoğan has also repeatedly used the General Assembly podium to highlight regional conflicts.

In 2011, he addressed developments in Syria, Libya, Somalia and Palestine and called for a settlement of the Karabakh dispute, saying unresolved international conflicts should be addressed before becoming entrenched.

Migration emerged as another major theme in later appearances. In 2019, Erdoğan held up a photograph of Alan Kurdi, the Syrian toddler whose body was found on a Turkish beach in 2015 after his family attempted to reach Europe.

He accused the international community of quickly forgetting refugees who had died attempting dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean or had been stranded at borders.

Palestine remains key focus

Palestine has remained one of the most prominent issues in Erdoğan’s U.N. appearances.

In 2019, he displayed maps showing changes in Israeli and Palestinian-controlled territory over decades as he questioned the effectiveness of U.N. resolutions concerning the conflict.

The issue became still more prominent following the outbreak of the Gaza war in 2023.

In his 2024 General Assembly address, Erdoğan sharply criticized Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and called on countries that had not recognized Palestine to do so. He reiterated Türkiye’s support for an independent and sovereign Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Erdoğan also renewed his criticism of the U.N. system, saying the organization had increasingly failed to fulfill its founding mission and invoking his "world is bigger than five” slogan as he criticized the Security Council’s response to the Gaza conflict.

Ukraine war, grain deal

The Russia-Ukraine war has also featured prominently in Erdoğan’s recent appearances.

Türkiye, a NATO member that maintains relations with both Moscow and Kyiv, played a central role alongside the United Nations in brokering the Black Sea Grain Initiative in 2022.

The agreement allowed Ukrainian grain and other food products to be exported through the Black Sea amid concerns over global food supplies.

Erdoğan used a photograph of a grain vessel passing through the Bosporus during a General Assembly speech to highlight the agreement, describing the Istanbul deal as one of the U.N.’s most significant recent achievements.

He argued that the initiative demonstrated that negotiations could produce results even on issues considered vital by parties to a conflict.

Cyprus, regional disputes

Cyprus has also been a recurring issue featured in Erdoğan’s speeches.

At the 78th General Assembly, he called on the international community to recognize the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and establish diplomatic, political and economic ties with it.

Erdoğan has also used his U.N. appearances to address Türkiye’s disputes and diplomatic priorities in the Eastern Mediterranean, developments in the Caucasus, Islamophobia, racism and climate change.

The president’s 2026 address is expected to again focus on major international and regional challenges while continuing Ankara’s long-standing calls for changes to the global governance system.

The Turkish leader is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with other heads of state and government during his visit to New York, alongside his participation in the General Assembly.

His Tuesday address will place Türkiye’s foreign policy priorities before the international community once again, more than two decades after he first used the U.N. podium to call for a more representative and effective international system.