Topic: 2025 – Situation in Myanmar
Country: Turkey
Delegate Name: Braden Longstreth
Delegation: Türkiye
Committee: SPECPOL
The Situation in Myanmar
Once Myanmar gained independence after World War II, the country was split up by a diverse number of ethnicities. These different ethnicities each built up their own militia, the Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs). These EAOs started their domestic conflict not too long after independence was declared and have been present ever since. This makes the conflict the longest acting conflict currently in the world. Because of this, the military had control over Myanmar for most of its history, despite losing multiple elections. Recently, the conflict escalated even further with the attempted overthrowing of the National Unity Government (NUG). For the last 4 years, a brutal civil war has been raging throughout Myanmar, with many different competing militias shattering any geopolitical structure that was present. This war in the last couple years alone has caused over 80,000 deaths and over 4 million people to be internally displaced. Along with the violence, the central government has lost its control of about 4/5 of the country and now shares no borders with neighboring countries without being separated by militias. This turn of the geopolitical structure had drastic effects on the economy of Myanmar, by destroying trade with their neighboring countries, and many other international allies (YouTube).
Although Turkey has no relations with Myanmar, they strive to protect each individual country’s sovereignty. By protecting the sovereignty of Myanmar, and strengthening their domestic rights, we can prevent the Chinese influence that could cause a proxy war, or even a regional war. Due to the breaking of the Chinese-initiated ceasefire, the government of China found that the challenge of the Tatmadaw regime went too far. As a diplomatic ally of Myanmar for many decades, they provided support to the Junta militia, with funds and weaponry. This unilateral influence over the Tatmadaw regime, has allowed for a much larger-scale conflict to occur in Myanmar, indicating that a unilateral approach to this conflict isn’t in any countries favor, besides that one country. Türkiye looks to support a multilateral approach to this crisis, specifically through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), (Civil).
Although this General Assembly cannot force a withdrawal of military support, or even pressure with sanctions, there must be a solution to decrease the unilateral influence of countries in this war. This could be done by creating a joint UN-ASEAN Mediation and Monitoring program for Myanmar. This could allow for an easier and safer mediation process, without the unilateral influence of any countries. The monitoring would also allow the UN to see the flow of weaponry from international allies to certain militias of Myanmar, to assess if retaliation would be needed by different bodies of the UN. A resolution should also reaffirm the principles of non-interference, to ensure that all member states refrain from supplying militias with weapons and supplies and therefore further escalate the conflict.
Work Cited:
“Civil War in Myanmar | Global Conflict Tracker.” Council on Foreign Relations, Council on Foreign Relations, www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/rohingya-crisis-myanmar. Accessed 23 Nov. 2025.
YouTube, YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fjjy0aNEA4w. Accessed 23 Nov. 2025.
