Erdoğan’s UN Appeal for Muslim Unity

At the United Nations General Assembly, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reaffirmed Türkiye’s leadership within the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), calling for renewed unity, vision, and strategic coordination among Muslim-majority nations amid deepening geopolitical uncertainty. Speaking to a world strained by conflicts from Gaza to Sudan, Erdoğan positioned Türkiye as both a bridge and a moral anchor, urging the OIC to act not as a reactive forum but as a proactive force shaping international order.

He underscored Türkiye’s unwavering commitment to “justice-driven multilateralism,” asserting that genuine peace depends on fairness, inclusivity, and equality of representation. The OIC, he said, must evolve from a consultative platform into a dynamic mechanism that gives voice to 57 nations bound by a shared moral and historical responsibility to stand against oppression, discrimination, and the erosion of human dignity.

A central theme of his speech was solidarity on the Palestinian cause, which he described as the “litmus test of international justice.” Erdoğan urged Muslim nations to go beyond words of sympathy and mobilize coordinated political, humanitarian, and economic initiatives to end “systematic violations of international law.”

He also addressed the growing threat of Islamophobia and cultural exclusion, warning that rising hate speech and intolerance under the guise of free expression threaten the moral fabric of global peace. “If left unchallenged,” he cautioned, “these trends will erode coexistence and humanity’s shared conscience.”

Concluding his address, Erdoğan renewed his call for reform in global governance, arguing that the United Nations must evolve to represent the realities of the twenty-first century. “A system that excludes the developing and Islamic world from decision-making cannot claim legitimacy,” he said. “Justice must not be a privilege—it must be the principle.”

With this message, Türkiye projected itself not merely as a participant in global forums but as a moral leader advocating equality, reform, and collective dignity—values increasingly central to its foreign policy identity.