Turkey loses out on UN Security Council seat

(BBC) - Turkey failed to win a seat on the United Nations (UN) Security Council after member states voted on Thursday.

The five non-permanent seats were given to Venezuela, Angola, Malaysia, New Zealand and Spain, the latter two beating Turkey to represent the West.

Turkey has been under international pressure to help combat Islamic State militants waging war along its border.

The new members of the Security Council will begin their two-year appointment on 1 January 2015.

Despite lobbying heavily amongst the UN's 193 member nations, Turkey lost out to Spain, which won the third round of run-off voting for the second of the two Western seats.

New Zealand won the first round with 145 votes.

The state-run Anadolu Agency reported Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu as saying: "We could not abandon our principles for the sake of getting more votes."

New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key said: "We just put on display the credentials of New Zealand, which is a country that's seen as an honest broker, someone that stands up for what's right."

Bakudaily.Az