Rejecting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s strong objections to what he sees as the disproportionate use of force by the US and UK in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, British officials have argued that the strikes are in self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter, the same article that Erdoğan has long cited for Turkey’s cross-border military strikes against Kurdish targets.
In the early hours of Friday morning, the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden saw an escalation of tensions as the US and UK launched an air campaign targeting Yemen’s Houthi insurgents following their latest attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea, an important global shipping lane. The Iran-aligned Islamist group has been attacking ships in the southern Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait in support of the Palestinians since the beginning of the war in Gaza on 7 October.
“They (US and UK) want to turn the Red Sea into a bloodbath. Israel does the same in Palestine,’ Erdoğan told reporters in Istanbul on Friday.
As fears of an escalation in the Middle East rose in the wake of Erdoğan’s comments, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hit back at critics who said the recent strikes were not proportionate, describing them as “limited, necessary and proportionate action in self-defence”.
A spokeswoman for the British prime minister also rejected Erdoğan’s accusations, saying: “We wouldn’t agree with that. These were limited and targeted strikes in response to aggression.”
“We acted in self-defence in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter,” she added.
Turkey also argues that its right to self-defence under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter covers its cross-border air and ground operations in both Syria and Iraq. International legal experts and human rights groups, on the other hand, are of the opinion that the attacks are a violation of international law.
Since 2012, Turkish forces have been carrying out a record number of military operations in the Kurdish-led region of northern Syria. They have also been carrying out cross-border operations against the positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the north of Iraq. On the very night that Erdoğan condemned the US and UK for their airstrikes, Turkey conducted airstrikes on nearly 30 targets in northern Iraq and Syria after nine of its soldiers were killed at a military base in Iraq.
Disputed legitimacy of military operations under the UN Charter
Article 51 of the UN Charter says:
“Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.
Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defence shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security.”
