“My fate was, in a way, an exceptional one … Not from a false sense of modesty but from a desire to give an accurate assessment, I would say that my fate has proved to be bigger than me. I only tried to be on a par with my own fate.”

SPEECH BY MR MEVLÜT ÇAVUŞOĞLU,
PRESIDENT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY,
ON THE OPENING OF THE EXHIBITION « SAKHAROV »

(Strasbourg, Wednesday 27 January 2010, 13h00, Lobby)

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Commissioner,

It is a great honour to stand here today, sharing with you the importance of a message so vital and fundamental to this organization - to our current lives and our common future. The message of Peace, Progress and Human Rights.

Mr. Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov died 20 years ago, but through his work, his publications and his life, he managed to communicate these values, and today, we, the Council of Europe, take pleasure and pride in enforcing his message.

Mr. Sakharov inspired change within his country and brought great confidence to his countrymen. Where others didn’t dare, he spoke aloud, and turned the attention of the people around him to the importance of international unity based on Peace, (progress) and Human Rights. These very same values are still an inspiration for us today, not because things have not progressed. But because some things have not progressed enough.

Mr. Sakharov was a man of conviction, and in his pursuit of his beliefs, he went from a dissident to a politician. More than 60 academic institutions, who like him wanted to change the thinking on Human Rights among Russian politicians, elected him for the first congress of people's deputies of the USSR in 1989

Although, his sudden death came only a few months after his election, his message now lives on in the Russian people, international institutions and in our common future aspirations to uphold Human Rights.

And now I will allow myself to quote Mr. Sakharov:

“My fate was, in a way, an exceptional one … Not from a false sense of modesty but from a desire to give an accurate assessment, I would say that my fate has proved to be bigger than me. I only tried to be on a par with my own fate.”

Let us all try to be on par with our own fate, and let us never consider the fate of the Council of Europe as too big for the people representing it.