SPEECH BY MR MEVLÜT ÇAVUŞOĞLU,

PRESIDENT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY,

FOR MR AHMET DAVUTOĞLU,

MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF TURKEY, PRESIDENT OF THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS

(Strasbourg, Tuesday 12 April 2011, 3.00 P.M.)

Dear Chairman,

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you again to the Assembly chamber to present your communication.

Your chairmanship, which will come to an end next month, has been an ambitious and far-reaching one since the outset. It fell on Turkey, one of the founding members of the Council of Europe, to chair this Organisation during one of the most crucial moments in its history, when we are facing the necessity of making it relevant to today’s world and its multiple challenges.

The reform is well underway and the Parliamentary Assembly is actively contributing to it with its own reform process. We are also contributing to the forthcoming High Level Conference on the Future of the European Court of Human Rights in Izmir, which has been one of the key priorities of the Turkish Chairmanship. The Assembly, which is actively involved in its own monitoring process of obligations and commitments of member states, equally highly appreciates your efforts to strengthen the Council of Europe’s monitoring mechanisms.

Your chairmanship has coincided with a complex political situation in several member states and your personal involvement in reasserting the values and principles of the Organisation has been of great value. I also wish to praise your efforts in strengthening relations with the European Union and other major international organisations, and in accelerating the process of accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights.

Dear Chairman, your mandate coincided with a challenging time not only for Europe, but also for our closest neighbours, with which we have closely inter-related. The ongoing revolutions in the Arab world give our Organisation an unprecedented opportunity to promote our values and share our expertise and thus contribute to strengthening democracy and human rights in the world. Your visit to Tunisia, together with the Secretary General, was part of this effort which we, in the Assembly, will further with a series of debates in June. We hope to receive our first “partners for democracy” in the Assembly in the very near future.

Dear Chairman, on behalf of the Assembly I wish to express our gratitude for your personal involvement and commitment to this Organisation, as well as that of Turkey in general at the highest political level, with the visit of President Gül last January and the visit of Prime Minister Erdogan tomorrow. I am confident that this exemplary cooperation will continue after the end of your chairmanship. Please accept our best wishes for the future.

Chairman, you have the floor.