Reforms Planned For Security Council Not In Line With Turkey's Interests, Ilkin

NEW YORK - Two models proposed for restructuring of the United Nations (UN) Security Council were not models which Turkey could accept, Baki Ilkin, Turkey's Permanent Representative to the UN, said on Saturday.
     Briefing the reporters, Ilkin said, ''reform proposals do not fully comply with Turkey's expectations and interests.''
     Recalling that the UN summit would be held in September, Ilkin said that this summit would be held in three stages.
     Ilkin noted that Turkish Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc would attend the first stage, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan would participate in the leaders' summit, and Turkish FM Abdullah Gul would join the General Assembly.
     UN Millenium Development Targets adopted in 2000 would be reviewed, developments recorded since then would be taken up, and UN reform package would be discussed in the summit, Ilkin stated.
     Ilkin said that UN organs like the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and Commission on Human Rights would be restructured during the meeting.
     ''We were saying that we favored increase of number of members of the Security Council, i.e. we wanted the number of two-year temporary members to be increased,'' said Ilkin.
     Ilkin noted that although the two proposals did not comply with Turkey's expectations and interest, the model B could meet Turkey's expectations at a certain extent if some amendments were made.
     Both the model A and model B proposes to increase the number of members of the Security Council from 15 to 24. Model A foresees six new permanent memerships and three new two-year temporary memberships to the Security Council, without the right to veto. On the other hand, Model B envisages eight semi-permanent memberships and a temporary two-year membership, also without the right to veto.
    
     -GERMANY AND JAPAN TO PRESENT RESOLUTION-
    
     Ilkin said that Germany and Japan had launched campaigns for permanent membership to the Security Council, and would bring forth a resolution regarding the changes to the Security Council if they guaranteed the required 128 votes in the UN General Assembly.
     These two countrise would try to make the General Assembly to pass the Model A which they backed, noted Ilkin.
    
     -NO OBJECTION TO HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL IN PRINCIPLE-
    
     Touching on the Human Rights Council planned to be formed in the UN, Ilkin said that Turkey was ready to support this council.
     Ilkin noted that Turkey was against limitation of number of members of this council, but said, ''Turkey does not have any objections to establishment of Human Rights Council in principle.''
     Turkey welcomed formation of Peacekeeping Council, Ilkin said.
    
     -TURKEY'S CANDIDACY FOR MEMBERSHIP OF SECURITY COUNCIL-
    
     Ilkin said that Turkey was one of three candidates running for two temporary seats at the Security Council, and considered Austria and Iceland as serious rivals.
     The reform process in UN would not affect Turkey's candidacy, added Ilkin.
     (BRC)
2005-05-07