Guterres to Visit Ankara on Ramadan Trip
By Bosphorus News Geopolitics Desk
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is set to travel to Ankara on his annual Ramadan solidarity trip, according to an official statement issued by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General at the daily press briefing at UN Headquarters in New York on March 10.
The UN said the trip is intended to honour what it described as the Turkish people’s generosity toward those forced to flee violence and persecution. In the same readout, the organisation said Türkiye hosts nearly 2.5 million refugees and asylum seekers, including more than 2.3 million Syrians.
During the visit, Guterres is scheduled to hold talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. He is also expected to meet representatives of non-governmental organisations supporting refugees in Türkiye and to receive the Atatürk International Peace Prize on behalf of UN personnel worldwide.
The trip comes as the geography around Türkiye remains under pressure from multiple wars. Gaza, Syria and Ukraine continue to generate displacement, political strain and diplomatic traffic, leaving Ankara tied not only to humanitarian files but also to mediation and political contact across several crises at once.
That makes the visit larger than a humanitarian gesture. For the United Nations, Türkiye is a major refugee-hosting country. It is also a state whose location and diplomacy keep it central to several active regional files.
Türkiye’s relationship with the United Nations has long carried both cooperation and friction. Ankara has worked closely with UN bodies on refugee support and regional humanitarian issues, while Erdoğan has for years argued that the United Nations Security Council no longer reflects a fair international balance. In his September 24, 2024 address to the United Nations General Assembly, he repeated the slogan “the world is bigger than five” and renewed his call for institutional reform.
Guterres’ Ankara stop therefore carries a political layer as well. It acknowledges Türkiye’s role in hosting displaced populations, while also bringing the UN chief into direct contact with a government that remains engaged with multilateral institutions and openly dissatisfied with how they perform under pressure.