Parliamentary Assembly

Mr President, I would like to express my deep gratitude for your invitation to address the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. I realise that these words of thanks are so often pronounced on such occasions that they might seem a mere formality on my part. However, I really must assure you that my presence here is for me a profound personal satisfaction and an exceptional honour for my country, since this is the first time in the history of the Council of Europe that a Greek Prime Minister has delivered an address to the honourable members of this Assembly.

The Council of Europe supports the democratic principles and individual rights which are held so dear by the European people. It is therefore a very special privilege to be able to speak to you in my capacity as the elected Prime Minister of that small historic corner of Europe – Greece – where such values blossomed for the first time. The fact that they are reblossoming in eastern Europe, which had long been deprived of them, constitutes an additional source of satisfaction for me.

The expansion of democracy has particular significance for us Greeks because it represents the triumph of our political heritage. Our ancestors in Athens realised twenty-five centuries ago that individuals were much more creative if their bodies, spirits and souls were free, and that the state functioned much better if all its citizens could play an active role in it, all being equal before the law.

The Athenian democracy was unable to expand in space and time. However, the value of the individual incarnated in a democracy found its expression in the new religion which spread through the Roman Empire, Christianity, which was strongly influenced by Greek philosophical concepts.

After the fall of Rome these concepts survived in Byzantium, to whose role in maintaining, enriching and propagating the ideas which have formed our world we do not always do justice.

Those ideas spread and democracy took root in western Europe and North America. However, it has been no easy matter to safeguard democracy, even during our own century. Innumerable men and women have fought and died for democracy, particularly here in Europe. Why? Because we here know what democracy represents and that once an individual acquires such awareness he cannot accept living under any other political system.

Herodotus recounts that a Greek once said to a Persian, “You do not know what freedom is. If you did, even if you had no weapons you would fight for it with your bare hands”.

Many throughout Europe had little but their bare hands when, during the second world war, they fought fascism, with empty hands, to preserve freedom. East Europeans again lost their freedom to Stalinism, but they knew what freedom was and continued to fight, using their bare hands against tanks and machine guns in the German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, and even more recently, in Albania.

Democracy is now spreading throughout these countries, more swiftly in some than in others but irrevocably in all. I am in a position to know that the work of the Council of Europe, and more particularly its relentless defence of human rights, is one of the main causes of that evolution.

We are at the dawn of a new era, we are experiencing remarkable events and very rapid change, and this organisation must play a major role now that the business in hand is to fashion the new Europe as it emerges, a continent of free nations.

The need for political contact and close co-operation between the Council of Europe and east European countries was stressed at the ministerial session on 5 May 1989. Since then the Council has been making valuable contributions to restoring democratic principles and procedures in countries which had been deprived of them for almost half a century.

Greece is firmly backing such efforts and I would here like to pay tribute to the initiatives taken by the Secretary General, Mrs Catherine Lalumière, to promote the re-establishment of democracy in eastern Europe. In fact, we should pay tribute to the whole Assembly, since, under your leadership, Mr President, it has initiated, with wisdom and vigilance, east Europeans in the practices of parliamentary democracy by granting them guest status with the Council.

Hungary and Czechoslovakia have now become fully-fledged members and others are preparing to follow suit. The presence of east European representatives has a significance which far transcends mere parliamentary dialogue. It expresses our societies’ determination to witness the reintegration of all the peoples recently liberated within the European family of free nations.

The Council has encouraged east European countries to progress resolutely along the road to the market economy, the establishment of property rights, the creation of a banking sector capable of promoting investment, reduction of subsidising, and implementation of all the other requisite structural changes to enable their economic systems to be smoothly integrated into the new Europe.

For its part western Europe should be ready to help them by opening up its markets and transferring to them technological know-how and above all through close co-operation in the field of environmental conservation, for the sake of future generations of Europeans.

Integration of the east European countries will not be devoid of difficulty, either for us or for them. However, that integration will come about because everyone is fiercely determined to see it do so.

The German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland have hitherto been the focal point of integration efforts. That is understandable since those countries are at the very heart of Europe and have already gone most of the way towards democracy and the market economy. We obviously need to pay the utmost attention to their efforts.

However, it is crucial not to neglect those countries where democracy is most vulnerable, where the future is least certain – the Balkan countries, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and Yugoslavia.

Some of them are still governed by convinced communists who will go some way towards democracy only if they feel forced to do so. Some are beset with considerable economic problems and nationalistic pressure. Others are paralysed by an ideological identity crisis and do not really know whether they would like to be communist or democratic.

The rest of Europe is duty-bound to guide, encourage and support them, and even at times to firmly goad them onward. It is certain that if Europe does not take an interest in the Balkans they will become as unstable at the end of this century as they were at its start.

The developments in those countries obviously have great importance for us in Greece because they are in our immediate vicinity. We have worked hard to establish good-neighbourly relations. Since 1976 we have been following what was a rather daring Balkan policy in the cold war context. It has been a policy of friendship and co-operation aiming at both economic development and reinforcement of peace and stability in the area.

Following the changes of the last two years, Greece, as the only member country of the European Community participating in intra-Balkan co-operation, has striven to shoulder its increasing responsibilities and do its utmost to reduce the sources of tension in the area.

We know very well that no Balkan country can benefit from the persistent instability and uncertainty created by the collapse of the former regimes based on centralised repression. We realise that it is no easy matter for a country automatically to evolve from a super-centralised economy to a market economy.

We ourselves have experienced similar problems and are in a position to know how difficult it is for a country to free itself from the bonds of an excessively state-controlled economy.

That is why we can understand the difficulties currently facing our neighbours in the Balkans. We believe that the process of radical change cannot be completed overnight and that the solutions to the problems can be found only by the peoples concerned. However, it is important for these countries to be able to rely on our encouragement, provided their strivings are in the right direction, that is to say towards democracy.

I am convinced that we shall all of us help the Balkan countries along the road to democratisation and integration into the new Europe, taking their place alongside those countries which have already taken the most intrepid steps towards attaining this aim.

However, we must not forget, ladies and gentlemen, that at a time when a spirit of close co-operation reigns in Europe, tension and conflict persist in the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

The most pressing danger is that of uncontrollable armament efforts which threaten to transform local crises into devastating wars. However, it should now be possible to exploit the experience and successes obtained in the CSCE process to reduce the causes of tension in that area.

In that connection the initiative for a conference on security and co-operation in the Mediterranean, which has full Greek backing, should be aimed mainly at the formulation and adoption of a “code of political conduct”. The code should set forth the general political principles to be respected by all countries in the area. The principles might include: mutual recognition of borders and the sovereignty of all countries in the area; acceptance of the principle of non-intervention; acceptance of the principle of peaceful settlement of disputes; and acceptance of the principle of balanced economic development.

The same principles were the basis of the resolution adopted by the Council of Europe during the Gulf crisis, which also contributed to international legality and solidarity.

I understand that discussion of the aftermath of the crisis is on the Assembly’s agenda. Allow me to express the hope that you will constantly bear in mind the concept of the indivisibility of international legality during your discussions.

We consider that the United Nations resolutions should never be applied selectively. Consequently, the United Nations resolutions on Cyprus should also be respected. A just and viable solution to the Cypriot problem is an imperative which today’s international situation makes more topical than ever. It is henceforth accepted that the Cypriot question should be included in the problems to be solved after the Gulf war.

Turkey, which enjoyed firm international support during the Gulf crisis, has an opportunity to show its goodwill by contributing to a solution to the Cypriot problem, beginning by withdrawing its occupying forces from the island.

Greece has the firm intention of opening serious and sincere dialogue with Turkey, based on observance of the Lausanne Treaty and more generally of international law.

Our aim is to use this process to install a climate of trust and understanding to guide our relations.

But we consider that only real progress towards a just, viable solution to the Cypriot problem can give the Greek-Turkish discussions the necessary impetus towards concrete results.

The Gulf war has once again shown that it is of cardinal importance for world security that all countries respect the fundamental principles of international law and refrain from use of force in international relations. We consider this an important heritage of all those who suffered and fell during the Gulf conflict.

Right from the beginning of the crisis my country fully backed all the United Nations resolutions on the matter. We immediately condemned the invasion of Kuwait and joined in the common efforts to persuade Iraq to withdraw its forces. Also, by making our national air space and port facilities available, we actively helped supply the allied troops which liberated Kuwait.

Greece lies at a crossroads in historic and cultural trends, and has always maintained close links with all the Middle Eastern countries. In our pronouncements on the Kuwait problem we were careful to maintain intact our traditional relations with all the countries of the region, without exception. We did so because we feel that co-operation between all parties after the crises might be the sole key to solving existing problems and guaranteeing peaceful economic and social development for the region.

I would now like to stress a crucial humanitarian problem which has shocked the whole world’s conscience. An immediate end must be put to the repression by Iraq of the Kurdish people. All civilized nations have the duty and responsibility to safeguard the fundamental rights of those people.

The needs in terms of humanitarian aid must be met, without delay, and the problems resulting from this unprecedented wave of refugees solved. Together with our partners in the European Community we have backed the idea of creating a protected area in the northern part of Iraq.

We also immediately condemned the use by the Iraqi authorities of weapons of mass destruction against their Kurdish fellow citizens. And we are pleased that all European nations are reacting with the same steadfastness.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, our response as Europeans to the tragedy of the Kurds, our solid opposition to the invasion of Kuwait, our determination to confront the long-term problems, and above all our steadfast commitment to political and economic union provide hope for the future of all of us on this continent.

However, our position in the world will be judged not only by the yardstick of our increasing economic power and the political influence we may exercise, but also that of our attachment to our shared European values – democracy, the rule of law, political pluralism and respect for human rights.

We shall never know what kind of Europe we would now be living in if this Assembly had not fought for over four decades to safeguard those values. However, we are sure that democracy would not have been the main source of inspiration in eastern Europe and the principle of respect for human rights would not have been the subject of so much concern throughout the world.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude for the financial assistance which the Council has granted my country to help it cope with the problems resulting from the establishment in Greece of large numbers of immigrants of Greek origin from the Soviet Union. I would also like to thank you for your positive attitude to the similar case of Greek immigrants and refugees from Albania.

And so I would like to conclude as I began, ladies and gentlemen, by paying tribute to this Assembly for all it has accomplished, for having been at the forefront of efforts towards European integration, for having remained faithful to the fundamental value of democracy, and for having enabled all to live lives inspired by hope and free of all fear.

You have given an authentic sense to the Greek word for “man” – anthropos – “the being who looks upwards”.

I would thank you for all your help, and particularly for your attention today. (Applause)