ANKARA – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Saturday for a “more just and inclusive” UN Security Council, using a message for the 81st anniversary of the United Nations to argue that Gaza and other conflicts show why reform cannot wait. The message was released by Turkey’s Communications Directorate on the Turkish platform NSosyal, Anadolu Agency reported.
“It has become particularly important to establish a more just and inclusive structure for the UN Security Council that can meet the expectations of the international community,” Erdogan said. He listed wars, humanitarian catastrophes, climate change, famine, poverty, racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia as proof that the UN’s mission has grown in importance, RIA Novosti reported, and urged all countries to back the UN Charter and reforms that make its principal organs more effective.
Erdogan said more than 74,000 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza in what he called genocide, Hurriyet Daily News reported. His figure is in line with the Gaza Health Ministry’s count as of October 21 of 74,494 dead and 175,604 injured since October 2023, including 1,534 killed since the October 2025 ceasefire, the Jordanian news agency Petra reported. The ministry’s numbers cannot be independently verified, and “genocide” is Erdogan’s characterization. Eastern Herald’s earlier count put the toll at 74,475 on October 18.
The Turkish leader also reaffirmed support for the UN80 initiative launched by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and said Turkey is working closely with the organisation toward making Istanbul a UN hub, Hurriyet reported. The goal is not new: his message for the UN’s 80th anniversary last year also backed UN80 and proposed an Istanbul UN center, according to Turkey’s Communications Directorate.
The call also repeats an argument Erdogan made a month ago at the General Assembly in New York, where he said a system in which the will of more than 190 countries is subject to the whims of five countries is neither fair nor capable of fully establishing trust, and that the Security Council must be reformed on the principle that “the world is bigger than five.” His General Assembly speech is on the Communications Directorate’s site. The Council has five permanent members with vetoes and ten rotating members, and who sits at the table remains a live grievance: Eastern Herald noted in August that Brazil has no seat while Lula asked Trump to convene it.
The excerpts of Saturday’s message reviewed by Eastern Herald do not say how Erdogan would change the Council: they name no preferred expansion model and no limit on the veto. That leaves the message as a statement of position rather than a proposal. Turkey’s diplomacy on other conflicts runs on a different track: on Wednesday Erdogan said Turkey is talking to both Moscow and Kyiv on Black Sea safety. The question of the Council’s composition and working methods remains a subject of ongoing international debate, RIA Novosti noted.
