ELECTION DAY IN UN RACE, ANKARA SETS SIGHTS ON WIN

Today’s Zaman
17 October 2008, Friday
Turkey

The long-awaited election to select new non-permanent members for
the UNsECurity Council in New York will take place today.

Having been lobbying intensely for a seat on the influential world body
for five years, Turkish officials are sitting back in their chairs,
hoping that their efforts will bear fruit.

"We have a clear conscience. We have done everything we could," Burak
Ozugergin, the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said yesterday ahead
of the elections. Foreign Minister Ali Babacan is still in New York for
a final round of lobbying for Turkish membership of the 15-member UN
Security Council. He most recently met with representatives of Asian
and European countries, asking for their support for the Turkish bid.

Turkey, a three-time member of the council, has been absent from the
influential body since 1961. The elections today will determine the
10 new temporary members of the council, selected from different
geographical groups. The tightest race seems to be in the Western
European and Others group, where Turkey is fighting Iceland and Austria
for one of the two seats reserved for the group. Turkey was a temporary
member of the council from 1951-2, 1954-5 and in 1961. Austria has
had a seat on the body twice and Iceland wants to shed its status
of being the only Scandinavian country never represented on the
council. However, Iceland’s current financial crisis and the near
collapse of its currency and three largest banks are threatening
its bid. For Turkey, a seat would mark the first time that Ankara
represents the Western European group.

In its first term on the UN Security Council, Turkey represented the
Middle East region. It moved to the Eastern Europe and Asia group later
and represented this class during its second term. Turkey has been in
the Western European and Others group since a new arrangement of the
grouping in the UN in 1966. And Ankara says it is high time to return
to the Security Council after an absence of nearly a half a century.

Since 2003, when it declared its candidacy for council membership
in 2009-2010, Turkey has been lobbying intensely for selection when
conducting diplomacy with the rest of the world. Relations with the
Caribbean, Latin America and Africa, virtually nonexistent before
2003, have come to the forefront and Ankara is now hoping that a
number of countries from these large groups will keep their promises
to support its bid for membership. Though the number of countries
pledging support is well above the minimum required, 128 out of 192,
officials are cautious, fearing that countries may well cast their
vote differently in the closed election.

Ankara’s biggest advantage is its growing international influence
and prestige as a regional peacemaker. Turkey has been mediating
talks between Syria and Israel, lobbying for a regional cooperation
platform for the Caucasus and thawing its relations with Armenia, a
neighbor with which it has no formal ties. Ankara says as a Security
Council member it could better help efforts to broker peace in the
much-troubled Caucasus and the Middle East.

But according to Ozugergin, the Turkish pro-active policy is
more than a mere bargaining chip for membership at the UN Security
Council. "Turkey is confident in its foreign policy and will continue
to do what it sees best for peace and stability," he said. "These
are not simply efforts for election to the Security Council."

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Tu rkey’s chance for UN seat worries Armenians The likelihood that
Turkey will win a seat on the UN Security Council is causing concern
among some Armenians, who fear Ankara might gain leverage to promote
pro-Azerbaijani decisions and speak up against Armenia’s claims of
a genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.

Turkey does not have formal ties with Armenia and has kept its border
with the landlocked country closed since 1993 in protest of Armenian
occupation of a part of Azerbaijani territory. Although relations
improved after a visit by President Abdullah Gul to Yerevan in
September, the two countries are far from restoring diplomatic ties.

Comments in the Armenian media have said Turkey is favored to win
the race for one of the two seats reserved for the Western European
group on the Security Council. According to Armenian analysts, the
Russian-Georgian crisis in the Caucasus in August boosted Turkey’s
chances for election as a regional peace broker. Media outlets also
report that Russia, which has good ties with Turkey, and the US,
which will need its NATO ally to press more strongly for pro-Israeli
decisions at the UN Security Council, are also likely to support
Turkey’s bid. Ä°stanbul Today’s Zaman with wires

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