OPENING STATEMENT OF MR MEVLÜT ÇAVUŞOĞLU

PRESIDENT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY

OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

OCTOBER 2011 PART-SESSION

STRASBOURG, Monday, 3 October 2011, 11.30 a.m.

Dear colleagues,

Welcome back to Strasbourg after the summer break. This year, the end of summer was marked by a terrible tragedy – the massacre at Utoeya island youth camp and the bombing in Oslo. Let me reiterate, on behalf of the 800 million Europeans which our Assembly represents, my sincere condolences to the families of the deceased, to the authorities of Norway as well as to our Secretary General.

We were deeply shocked by this massacre. For me, terrorism remains the greatest threat to the universal values of human rights. My country, Turkey, is also affected by this scourge – a recent bomb explosion killed three people in Ankara and, last week, I visited, in my Antalya constituency, the family of a Turkish soldier killed by terrorists, unfortunately only one of many who have died fighting terrorism. Even worse, the most recent victims of terrorists in Turkey are women, children and even babies – four young girls were killed in Siirt and one pregnant woman with a four years old daughter were killed brutally in Batman last week.

No cause, no political motivation, can justify terrorism and every act of terror, regardless of the reasons given for it, must be considered a crime against humanity. Terrorists do not defend any ideas, they just seek to propagate hatred and barbarity. On the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York, we issued, together with the Secretary General and the Chairman in Office of the Committee of Ministers, Mr. Gryshchenko, a joint declaration stressing that terrorism has no ideology, no nationality and no religion. Terrorism in all its forms is a violation of the most fundamental human right: the right to life.

Our response must be based on human rights, democracy and the rule of law. That is why the report to be presented to us by Mr. Dick Marty is so important – it stresses that secret service and intelligence agencies must be held accountable for human rights violations such as torture, abduction or renditions and not shielded from scrutiny by unjustified resort to the doctrine of “state secrets”.

Quick, firm and efficient action on terrorism is needed. However, in the long term, as the Assembly has repeatedly stated, one of the most efficient tools to combat extremism and intolerance is intercultural and inter-religious dialogue. One month ago, in the Danish Parliament I declared that the best model for “living together” is to build bridges among cultures and religions in a spirit of respect, dialogue and tolerance. There are challenges to European multiculturalism today, but, instead of speaking of a failure, our response should be a truly intercultural approach, which allows culturally different groups within society to interact.

Colleagues,

After showing some signs of relief during the past year, the economic and financial crisis is deepening again in Europe. The vicious circle of excessive debt, large budget deficits and low economic growth is now threatening the very foundations of European structures and the quality of life of European citizens.

The European Union and its hardcore – the Euro zone - has been seriously affected by these negative tendencies. The highest European leaders now speak about a crisis of the European Union, unprecedented since its creation. Responses are extremely difficult to find but I hope that our debate on the OECD activities, and exchange of views with Mr. Gurria, OECD Secretary General, will at least provide us with some leads.

The crisis is no longer a purely economic one. Governments are being forced to make painful political, economic and social choices which affect millions of Europeans and also our values. When the cake becomes smaller and smaller and there is not enough for everyone, it becomes increasingly difficult to ensure that the rules of the game are the same for everyone. In my opinion, it is high time for our Assembly to have a serious and frank discussion about this crisis and its consequences.

Dear friends,

The third important and urgent challenge that I wish to mention here today, are the revolutionary changes in Europe’s close neighbourhood, in particular in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, as well as ongoing protests in Syria. As far as our action is concerned, I consider that the Assembly is successful in pursuing a strategy of bringing non-member states closer to the Council of Europe and to our standards.

We will observe elections in Tunisia and Morocco, and after having granted the “Partnership for Democracy” to the Parliament of Morocco, tomorrow we will decide on the request by the Palestinian National Council. This request comes as a logical development, as the Assembly has been co-operating closely with Palestinian representatives for years. I am confident that granting Partner for Democracy status to the Palestinian National Council will strengthen co-operation between the Palestinians and the Council of Europe and help implementation of democratic reforms in the Palestinian territories. In this connection, the address of Mr. Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday will be a very important moment for our Assembly.

I also wish to welcome among us a delegation of the Parliament of Kyrgyzstan, headed by its Vice-Speaker. During my visit to Bishkek in July, I encouraged the Parliament to make a request for the partnership status and I hope that it will reach us soon.

Colleagues,

Finally, I would like to inform you that a traditional annual joint meeting of the political group leaders of our Assembly and of the European Parliament took place in Brussels two weeks ago. It was a good occasion to welcome the progress regarding the agreement reached on the modalities of participation of European Parliament representatives in the Assembly’s procedure of electing judges to the European Court of Human Rights

We were encouraged by the support of the European Parliament for European Union accession to the European Convention on Human Rights and, in general, by their clear political will to develop our cooperation. Therefore, the report of Mrs. Kerstin Lundgren on the impact of the Lisbon Treaty for the Council of Europe could not have come at a better moment.

I very much hope that, in these uncertain times, our two institutions will join forces to create a common space for human rights protection on the whole European continent.

I wish you a successful session. Thank you for your attention.