Fifty years on: Turkey's voting orientation at the UN general assembly, 1948–97

Abstract

As is well known, the United Nations (UN) has been at the forefront of endeavours pertaining to the progressive development of international law for over 50 years. To realize its objectives, the UN has had to find ways of encouraging international co-operation designed to cope with certain economic, political and social problems that could not be resolved by individual states alone. These problems are varied, and are subject to an evolutionary legal process. They range from 'human rights' issues to the 'protection of the environment', from 'self-determination' to the 'rights of women', from 'the search for a new international economic order' to the 'rights of refugees and displaced persons', and so on. For its part, this study deals with three of the outstanding issues which fall into the category of 'progressive' international law: 1. Decolonization and the principle of self-determination; 2. Search for a new international economic order; 3. Human rights. This particular focus derives from the fact that these themes reflect a great deal about the foreign policy choices of states. Secondly, they have had more far-reaching implications for the conduct of international relations than other issues of international law. Besides, there has been much controversy around these subjects since the foundation of the United Nations. This study accordingly tries to explore, within a chronological framework, Turkey's voting preferences in the UN over these subjects in the past 50 years. The main crux of the analysis made here centres around the UN General Assembly (GA) discussions over various resolutions, declarations and decisions. It is generally agreed that the voting behaviour in the General Assembly is a clear expression of a given state's foreign policy orientation. It indicates the way in which the ruling elites define the nation's goals and expectations and reflects 'its actual behaviour rather than its claims or