Turkey to chair Security Council meetings on peace

Abdullah Gül, the president of Turkey, which holds the rotating council presidency, will chair the Sept. 23 meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly’s annual ministerial session. Turkey considers the Sept. 23 council meeting on maintaining peace the most important goal of its two-year Security Council membership. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is also expected to attend the meetings.

Turkey’s ambassador to the UN, Ertuğrul Apakan, told reporters on Thursday that a key aim is to have the leaders reaffirm the council’s determination to play a stronger role in the political settlement of disputes and in implementing peace agreements.

The high-level exchange “is expected to raise global awareness on the new and evolving threats and challenges to international peace and security and empower the council and operational tools available to it -- namely, preventive diplomacy, peacemaking, peacekeeping and post-conflict peace building,” he said.

Apakan said a presidential statement expected to be adopted by the leaders at the end of the meeting will hopefully underline the need for a comprehensive approach to peace and “the necessity for a new and stronger partnership between the Security Council and our collaborators within and outside the UN system.”

US President Barack Obama, in his debut appearance on the world stage a year ago, chaired a high-level meeting of the Security Council on disarmament and efforts to halt the spread of nuclear weapons. The US held the council presidency in September 2009.

Turkey will also hold a ministerial meeting of the council on Sept. 27 which will take stock of the global fight against terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001.

Shortly after the attacks, the Security Council adopted a resolution requiring all states to criminalize terrorist acts, increase cooperation to prevent terrorist attacks, deny terrorists safe haven and financial resources, and prevent them from crossing borders.

Apakan said that the international community has come a long way over the last nine years in combating terrorism. “However, this scourge has unfortunately proven to be extremely resilient by adapting itself to changing circumstances and exploiting every gap or loophole they find in our common stance,” he said.

“Therefore, we have to be equally committed and resilient in our fight against this threat,” Apakan said. “We must never be complacent with our achievements and always try to do better… considering that no country is immune from the peril of terrorism.”

He expressed hope that the discussion and a statement to be adopted by the ministers “will help re-energize the international community’s campaign against terrorism and highlight the areas of priority that require continued and concerted action.”

In a weekly press briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Selçuk Ünal said Turkey will also preside over Security Council meetings on Afghanistan, Haiti, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan and the Middle East region during its term presidency. Asked if Turkish officials will have talks with their Armenian counterparts  at the UN General Assembly meeting, Ünal said there is no scheduled meeting concerning this, but he did not rule out the possibility of such a meeting taking place.