The Significance of Erdoğan's Emphasis on Gaza in His UN Speech

President Erdoğan dedicating a significant portion of his UN speech to Gaza highlighted not only the importance of the Palestinian issue for Türkiye but also its central role in regional peace and global governance. The moral clarity and call to action on this matter, which has been a recurring theme in Erdoğan’s past speeches, carried considerable weight. The UN, established to ensure international peace and security, has been paralyzed in addressing the Palestinian issue due to its structural problems and inability to move beyond great power rivalries, illustrating the crisis of the international order. Türkiye’s insistence on keeping the Palestinian issue on the global agenda is crucial for its national interests, regional balance, and the future of the international system.

"WHY DOES TURKEY CARE ABOUT PALESTINE?"

During a panel I attended while in New York for the UN General Assembly, I was asked a question we sometimes hear in Washington: "Why does Türkiye care so much about Palestine?" For Turkish public opinion, the answer is simple. Even though Türkiye was among the first countries to recognize Israel, it has always been sensitive to the Palestinian issue. This is one of the issues that unite the country beyond ideological and political differences. Anyone who follows Turkish politics knows that advocating against support for Palestine or ignoring the occupation is not a viable argument in Türkiye.

Beyond Türkiye’s national sensitivity, Israel’s deepening occupation and escalating policies of ethnic cleansing create regional instability, which goes against Türkiye’s interests. The prolonged stagnation of Israel-Palestine peace talks, allowing the occupation to expand through new settlements, has destroyed Palestine’s territorial integrity. President Erdoğan’s impactful presentation of maps at the UN General Assembly vividly demonstrated this. Israel’s deepening occupation and its establishment of a discriminatory political system within its borders also hinder the normalization of its relations with the Arab world.

Moreover, Israel’s narrative in Western public opinion that there is no willing partner for peace on the Palestinian side has enabled the expansion of the occupation and continuous loss of Palestinian land. This process, which prevents Israel from becoming a normal country in the region, also perpetuates a low-intensity regional conflict with Iran. The failure to establish a sovereign Palestinian state has contributed to instability and conflict both in the Middle East and the broader Islamic world. This scenario continues to harm the interests of countries like Türkiye, which thrives in an environment of peace and stability. When we combine the national sensitivities of Turkish domestic politics with the regional conflicts that damage Türkiye’s interests, it becomes clearer why Palestine matters so much to Türkiye.

THE CRISIS OF THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM

The Gaza crisis has once again shown that the UN cannot prevent Israel from disregarding the principles outlined in its founding charter. The issue of Gaza starkly reveals the unmanageable crisis of the international system, underscoring the urgent need for reform within the UN. The West’s strategy of isolating Russia, rather than addressing issues through the UN in response to Ukraine’s invasion, has proven ineffective. While the Biden administration has been successful in rallying support for Ukraine and revitalizing NATO, it has not produced a policy that can bring about peace, further sidelining the UN. We’ve seen that the era when the U.S., Russia, and China could negotiate and make critical decisions within the UN Security Council (UNSC) has ended.

After 9/11, the U.S. embarked on its war on terror not through the UN’s international legal framework but by forming a "Coalition of the Willing," marking a turning point for the international system. Washington sent a message that the UN was no longer the first port of call for matters of war and peace. During the Arab Spring, while the Obama administration succeeded in pushing for a UNSC resolution to intervene in Libya, it could not manage the backlash from Russia. This revealed a UNSC that could not act unless great powers were willing to negotiate and cooperate.

This situation has eroded member states’ faith in the UN, highlighting the need for reform in a global governance system that cannot make major decisions without the influence of powerful countries. Current reform proposals include updating the UN’s founding charter, expanding the UNSC beyond its five permanent members, and perhaps most importantly, allowing the veto power to be overridden. It will be difficult for the great powers to accept these changes, and the process will take time. In the short term, these reforms are unlikely to be game-changers for the Palestinian issue. Nevertheless, we can say that Türkiye is trying to turn the crisis of the international system into an opportunity for a more equitable order.