ISTANBUL - The Council of Europe (COE) Secretary General Walter Schwimmer said on Tuesday that they must end the isolation of the Turkish Cypriot community.
Delivering a speech at the 31st Session of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers in Istanbul, Schwimmer stressed that expectations for a settlement of the Cyprus question have unfortunately been disappointed and said, ''while respecting the choice made by the Greek Cypriot community, we must now end the isolation of the Turkish Cypriot community. We are already working on this.''
Schwimmer recalled that Turkey which, in recent months, indeed recent days, continued to deliver an impressive record of political reforms and important decisions concerning the opening of negotiations for its accession to the European Union (EU) would be taken at the end of this year.
''The project of political Europe, let us never forget, is first and foremost based on values of democracy, human rights and rule of law. The fact that a Muslim country and secular state such as Turkey is ready and willing to embrace and abide by these values is the recognition of our own claim that these values are universal, and not merely a pet project of the affluent West European societies. This makes the whole issue of Turkey's future place and role in Europe a fact of huge historic significance, not only for Turkey, not only for Europe, but for the world as a whole,'' said Schwimmer.
Schwimmer said that he, as the Secretary General of COE, represented 800 million European citizens, including 100 million who may claim to have an Islamic faith or culture. He added that Islam was an integral part of Europe's diversity and the diversity among different societies should be considered as a gaining not an obstacle.
(GC-AÖ) 15.06.2004