This is considered a staggering, albeit splendid, defeat considering Turkey was anticipated to be a shoo-in for a non-permanent U.N. Security Council seat.

erdogan-obamaPreviously Turkey had claimed letters of support from 160 countries. However, the actual voting by secret ballot showed they only had 60 countries who supported their bid. The needed threshold is 128 supportive votes. Spain won the seat with 132 votes of support. New Zealand is the other contested victor who won in a previous ballot.
As Newsweek reported: “[Last] Wednesday night, Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, hosted a posh party for diplomats at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, where many of the guests predicted an easy victory for Turkey“.
Apparently the ‘pinky swear’ diplomats partook of the ritzy digs; but when push came to shove they knew their ballots would be secret so they ditched the Turks who have become more and more unreliable as Sunni Islamist President Erdogan pushes Turkey further and further into radical Islam.
Obama Erdogan - Turkey
[More from Newsweek] After several rounds of voting, Turkey ended up receiving the support of only 60 General Assembly members, while Spain got 132 votes, more than enough to satisfy the necessary threshold of 128 supporters.
New Zealand got elected in an earlier round. Angola, Malaysia and Venezuela ran unopposed in their regional voting blocs.
The American U.N. ambassador, Samantha Power, homed in on Venezuela after the vote, saying in a statement, “Venezuela’s conduct at the U.N. has run counter to the spirit of the U.N. Charter, and its violations of human rights at home are at odds with the Charter’s letter. The United States will continue to call upon the government of Venezuela to respect the fundamental freedoms and universal human rights of its people.”
The five newly elected members will replace Australia, Argentina, Luxembourg, South Korea and Rwanda on January 1 and will serve on the council for two years. Power’s statement promises to create new tensions among council members, but perhaps not as tense had Turkey become a member. (link)

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