The folly of Erdogan’s awful campaign against UN
Over the recent time, it is hard to turn on the television, flip through the pages of newspapers or surfing the internet without being bombarded with several ugly developments going on in Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The issues have been relentless – from a wave crackdown on human rights to the support for […]
Over the recent time, it is hard to turn on the television, flip through the pages of newspapers or surfing the internet without being bombarded with several ugly developments going on in Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The issues have been relentless – from a wave crackdown on human rights to the support for blood- thirsting militants in Syria, from the suppression of Hizmet movement to the unholy interference in other countries’ affairs, among others.
I had resisted the strong urge to also add my voice in drawing the attention of the international community to these misdemeanors of Erdogan and his co-travelers in the ruling AK party based on my initial erroneous belief that Turkey is far from Nigeria, and not minding the huge investments own by Turkish people in the country. But my renewed resolve to speak on the dictatorial rule that now holds sway in Turkey was fuelled by the tantrums and insults being regularly poured on the highly-respected United Nations (UN) by Erdogan.
The Turkey’s President, whose approval rating has nosedived in recent years due to unpopular dictatorial acts, has continued to capitalise on any given opportunity to wage a vicious campaign against UN and talking about why he thinks the organisation should receive a regular dose of bully for daring to issue resolutions that condemn the worsening right abuses in Turkey.
Erdogan’s continued bashing of UN, which can be likened to a man dancing naked in a village square, is mainly motivated by his growing fear of being dragged into the global spotlight and held accountable for crimes against humanity because of alleged arming and funding of radical militants all over.
It is an open secret that the world body, through its relevant organs, has not shied away from hitting hard on countries that have become cesspit for massive rights violations or supporting elements that inflict violence in other nations, hence, I wonder why Erdogan would think his government would be spared of condemnation from not only the UN but other international bodies, since he has decided to join the notorious club of dictators. Just like the proverbial farmer, who should not complain of having lizards as visitors after bringing home ants-infested firewood, the Turkey’s President should either purge himself of dictatorship or be ready to face more damning condemnations from various quarters, as attacking the credibility of UN or European Union (EU) would not serve is ill-conceived cause.
The Turkey’s President, who is well known for playing religious card in politics now appears to be using Islam as a smokescreen in its vituperations against UN. He was reportedly saying that 1.7 billion Muslims in the world are not represented at the UN Security Council as if the seats were allocated on religious criteria and even claimed that the permanent member states are all Christian. As if that was not enough, the Turkey’s Islamist President, who is also doing everything possible to silent the peaceful Hizmet Movement that is inspired by United States based Cleric, Fethullah Gulen, now believes that the UN has become a burden on all humanity and said he no longer has any expectations from this body.
But many are not too surprised with the stance and antics of Erdogan as most dictators lean on trivial primordial interests when the searchlight on rights violation is beamed on them by the UN Security Council. Erdogan regime has not hidden its passion to disregard the Council’s resolutions as exhibited over the recent time. Such violation cut across counterterrorism resolutions such as Resolutions 2170 (2014), 2178 (2014) and 2199 (2015), which call for criminal prosecution of those member states that allow, facilitate or sponsor radical terror groups such as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the Al Nusra Front and their affiliates.
Before the new romance between Erdogan and the Russian government, Russia was said to have submitted several documents to the UN Security Council alleging Erdogan’s family members were involved in illegal oil smuggling, used state-owned banks to transfer funds to radicals and tapped front charity groups to deliver arms to Syrian rebels.
Some analysts also hinged Erdogan onslaught against the UN on the role being played by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on how to best handle the influx of Syrian and other refugees in Turkey. According to one of the analysts, “for Erdogan, refugees were simply leverage to be used against Syria in the initial years of the conflict that started in 2011,” to further stimulate the Arab Spring revolutions that will see to the overthrown of Bashar Al Assad regime. But the UNHCR, which was led by Antonio Guterres, thwarted the dirty plan by embarking on the full registration of the refugees.
Erdogan also used the Syrian refugee issue as a bargaining chip against EU by subtly arranging refugee-migrants surge to Europe. It later paid off when the EU ease the pressure on Erdogan over rights violations following agreement reached to stop migrant flow from Turkey to Europe. The European leaders even went as far as disregarded their own values and gave the Turkey’s President red-carpet treatment at a European summit.
But Erdogan, having failed to arm-twist the UN over the torrents of genuine criticisms of his government, his doing everything possible to give the world body a bad image , but the folly of this Turkish President infamous adventure is that it has further brought him to the limelight at the world stage as a bad leader.
Haruna, an international affairs commentator, wrote this piece from Kaduna