Şener Elcil
Former General Secretary of the
Cyprus Turkish Teachers’ Union

The world order is based on the contradiction between labor and capital, and the working classes are exploited as slaves in the service of a minority that controls capital, through rulers who are puppets in the hands of that minority.

At the end of the XIX century, financial groups of Jewish origin, which maintained a presence in every country, managed to gain global power by financing both world wars. Through their effective influence on the governments of colonizing nations, these capital groups have shaped the world according to the nation-state model, drawn borders, and created the conditions for ethnic, sectarian, and religious conflicts to arise; in this way, they have maintained their global influence to this day by following the logic of “divide and conquer.” The capital groups, which we refer to as “world powers” and which shape the world from behind the curtains, have achieved a monopoly following the collapse of the Soviet Union, operating in every country in the world through their companies.

These groups, which unleash wars to sell weapons and turn people against each other by exploiting ethnic, sectarian, and religious divisions to perpetuate exploitation, simultaneously pretend to support “peace initiatives.” For them, peace is a tool they use to further their own interests. They oppose any initiative that runs counter to their interests and do not hesitate to take whatever steps are necessary to maintain that balance.

After World War II, the victorious powers that participated in the meeting known as the “Yalta Conference” divided the world according to their spheres of influence and established a new order. The balance established between the Soviet Union and the Western countries led by the United States, based on nuclear power, was marked by the “Cold War and the era of military coups.” During this process, the only supranational institution where all parties came together was the United Nations, with its headquarters in New York.

Despite all these years, when we analyze the structure, position, and activities of the United Nations, we see that it is far removed from the peace humanity needs and from the ideal of making the world the common home of humanity.

Instead of the norms we call “international law,” we are faced with a structure in which “the law of the strongest” prevails.

Granting the “right of veto” to the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council constitutes the greatest privilege that generates structural injustice. The spurious excuses used to justify this inequality, such as financial contributions to the UN budget or the possession of nuclear weapons, demonstrate that the institution does not serve all of humanity, but rather the world powers that support countries like the United States – the United Kingdom, that is, global capital.

Sticking to the ideal of “Greater America,” the United States, after emerging victorious from World War II, gained a major advantage by imposing the use of the dollar in global trade and, by bringing an international institution like the United Nations under its control, ensured that its main bodies were located on its own territory.

After the war, global capital groups were concentrated in the United States, gaining power on an international scale. Until the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States, albeit in a limited manner and with only partial respect for international law, positioned itself within the United Nations through the structure of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The polarization between the U.S. – NATO countries, and the Soviet Union – Warsaw Pact countries on one side, and the Non-Aligned Movement on the other, kept the United Nations trapped for years in fruitless debates.

The Korean War, the Suez Crisis, the creation of the State of Israel, the Cuban Revolution, the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus following intercommunal conflicts on the island, the breakup of Yugoslavia, the genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the invasion of Iraq, the regime change in Libya and Syria, the war in Ukraine, and the genocide in Gaza have demonstrated that decisions made at the United Nations are implemented based on the balance of power.

Currently, the unipolar world order has granted the U.S. administration, in the service of global powers, the advantage of doing whatever it wants, using force and disregarding international law and human rights. The United Nations, with headquarters in New York, has not only failed to take any action in response to this situation, but the United States also refuses to allow government leaders it does not approve of to enter the country to attend UN meetings.

As if that were not enough, the U.S. government is implementing a new policy aimed at reducing the organization’s scope of action or rendering it ineffective by cutting its contribution to the UN budget. In line with this new policy, U.S. President Donald Trump has openly intervened in the UN’s sphere of action and, after collecting one billion dollars from each participating country, has created a new structure called the “Peace Council”.

In light of all these developments, in order to free the United Nations from U.S. domination, it is essential that the organization return to the principles set forth in its founding objectives, that equal voting rights be adopted in the Security Council’s decision-making processes, and that the headquarters be moved out of New York to a neutral country, such as Geneva, Switzerland.