ROME - State Minister Mehmet Aydin stressed on Thursday that universal values like democracy and pluralism are not values of a single religion but values of all religions.
Speaking in the conference on interreligious dialogue as a factor of social harmony in Europe and means of peace in the Mediterranean held in Rome by Italian Interior Ministry, Aydin touched on importance of interreligious dialogue and said that they did not welcome the view to refer to any religion in the constitution of the European Union (EU).
Aydin noted that Turkey was not pleased with the current shape of the EU constitution being drafted.
Drawing attention that there were people who wanted the preamble of the constitution to refer to Christian roots of Europe, Aydin underlined that such a proposal was very wrong in many respects.
Recalling that democracy, justice, transparency and freedom were values shared by every people whether they were religious or not, Aydin said, ''it will be wrong to define them as Christian or Muslim values by a unilateral style. These values belong to whole humanity and belong to all of us. Therefore, they should continue to be values of all of us.''
Following the conference, Aydin replied to questions of Turkish reporters.
Aydin said that interreligious dialogue was important for social peace and intermingling and noted, ''we think it is a very positive development that the European interior ministers held a meeting on interreligious dialogue by calling the religious officials.''
When he was recalled about the reference to Christian roots in the constitution of the EU being drafted, Aydin said, ''EU constitution should not include expressions which can cause misunderstandings like Europe is a Christian club.''
Aydin stated that reference to religious roots in draft EU constitution could overshadow accomplishments of Europe.
''If Europe is to be open to other cultures and civilizations, it should stay away from excluding expressions and statements,'' Aydin said.
Otherwise, he noted, it would obstruct contributions of people of other cultures and religions.
Even though he did not mention any name, Aydin criticized the officials of Vatican who insisted on stressing Europe's Christian roots.
(BRC) 30.10.2003