It appears that Turkey’s diplomatic efforts during the past few months have paid off. After an absence of nearly fifty years Turkey will be returning  to the United Nations Security Council as a non-permanent member as of January 1st. 

In the summer Turkey hosted the Caribbean Summit, with CARICOM member states, and afterwards the Turkey-Africa Cooperation Summit. It made attempts to act as a regional conflict mediator in the Caucasus and Middle East.

As a result, on October 17th it was elected to the Security Council as a non-permanent member with two-thirds of the votes cast in its favor. 151 of the UN’s 192 member states voted to elect Turkey to the Security Council. The last time any country garnered such a strong showing was in 1996 when Sweden garnered 157 votes. 

It is correct that Ankara started working on joining the Security Council four years ago when it made a bid for the seat back in 2003. The last time Turkey sat on the Council was back in 1961. Thereafter, he continuing Cyprus conflict prohibited the entrance of both Turkey and Greece into the august body. In the 1990’s Turkey was forced to withdraw its Council membership application on two occasions for a variety of reasons.

Ankara owes the success of this diplomatic coup to its Foreign Affairs Ministry as well as to Baki Ilkin, Turkey’s Permanent Ambassador to the United Nations, who after planning and organizing this four year publicity blitz, is now preparing to retire.

It is not that easy to receive the support of 151 countries. For example, at the Turkey-Africa Cooperation Summit, Turkey promised the fifty nations it had invited that it would open fifteen new embassies throughout Africa as well as to increase the amount of Turkish financial aid to the continent. As Ahmet Davutoglu, chief foreign policy aide to Prime Minister Erdogan, noted after the election, the successful outcome of the vote, “was neither chance, nor bribery”.

Today Turkey is developing at a fairly fast clip. It has transformed from a borrower into a donor nation with a yearly development assistance budget of $600-700 million. Turkey’s International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA), which has offices in 25 countries, is engaged in various development projects with some 100 world governments. 

The Security Council is the most important body in the United Nations. It has five permanent member states; the United States, Russia, China, France and Great Britain. All five have veto power. The other ten Council members are elected on a rotation basis and serve two year terms. Thus, every year five of the ten non-permanent members are changed.

The functions of the Council include the formulation of punitive measures, the establishment of peacekeeping missions and allowing for military operations. While it is correct that only the five permanent embers have veto power that is not to say that the non-permanent members are not able to exert their influence when it comes to passing decisions.

“Turkey\\\'s inclusion in the Security Council makes it more likely that there will be greater cooperation and competition among American, European and Russian diplomats in their attempts to court their new Turkish colleagues.” writes the newspaper Today’s Zaman.

“There is little doubt that Turkey’s main motivation in seeking a seat on the Security Council was simply national pride. Despite its often aggressive, even bellicose, nationalistic rhetoric, Turkey remains intensively sensitive to what it believes others think of it. Particularly under the AKP, the search for international prestige has become one of the main determinants of foreign policy; sometimes overriding more tangible political and economic benefits.” states Eurasia Daily Monitor.

Being included in the Security Council however, in addition to the authority and opportunities granted, also assumes a high level of responsibility. Turkey will now be obligated to express a clear position regarding Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as the Karabakh conflict.

Ali Babacan, Turkey’s Foreign Affairs Minister declared that Turkey’s policies would not change as a result of its Security Council seat.

"Whatever we have said about the Cyprus issue so far, we will continue to say the same things after we become a member of the Security Council.”  Babacan stated on the Turkish commercial TV station NTV. He went on to say that Turkey would maintain its positions vis-à-vis the Caucasian problem and developments in the Middle East.

“Concerns that Iran- and Iraq-related issues on the Council\\\'s agenda may put Turkey in a difficult position are being frequently voiced. But to avoid risks related to being a member of the Security Council is impossible. We cannot take the easy way out and try to please everyone. For instance, if we truly believe that the Iranian nuclear program presents a clear danger, we will have to take a stance accordingly. If the Georgian issue is on the table, we will insist on Georgian territorial integrity. “ writes the Turkish Daily News.

In terms of Armenia, Turkey’s membership in the Council assumes a degree of importance only in terms of the possibility it may have to involve itself in the Karabakh affair. This will especially be probable in the situation when the attempts by Ankara to unilaterally mediate a settlement to the conflict fail. As is well know, Turkey and Azerbaijan, are pulling out all the plugs to change the format of the Minsk Group and one variation for such change is to transfer the settlement process from the OSCE to the United Nations. GUAM organization states have become adept at passing decisions regarding ‘frozen conflicts in the South Caucasus’ in the UN General Assembly. After the Georgian-Russian war these resolutions can receive new impetus. 

True, the United Nations would take on the Karabakh issue only in an extreme case. To date, the Security Council has adopted four resolutions regarding the Karabakh issue. All four were passed in 1993 and call “for occupying forces to withdraw from occupied territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan.”

In any event, Hulusi Kilij, Turkey’s Ambassador to Azerbaijan, declared that Turkey, by becoming a non-permanent ember of the Security Council would assist in settling heretofore “frozen conflicts”. The diplomat noted, “In its new capacity Turkey intends to work for the implementation of the four United Nations resolutions regarding the settlement of the Karabakh conflict and to assist in its peaceful resolution.”