Last week John joined his fellow co-rapporteur for Turkey to lead face to face meetings in Turkey to discuss human rights, the freedom of the press and electoral rules in the country. Representing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) John Howell worked with Boriss Cilevics, a Latvian PACE member, for open and frank dialogue with the Turkish authorities.
On his return John said " It was an exhausting but, I think, successful visit. Turkey was a founder member of the Council of Europe but has not always followed through on Council resolutions. It was good to be able to work with the Turkish authorities directly to discuss these important issues. As a result of this, I think we made good progress on a number of issues."
Following the visit John and Boriss issued a joint statement:
While sanitary conditions have hampered recent contacts, we value the resumption of face-to-face discussions based on mutual respect and excellent co-operation with the authorities and the Turkish delegation to PACE.
Our visit mainly focused on the execution of rulings of the European Court of Human Rights – in this context, we had the opportunity to attend the latest court hearing of Osman Kavala in the Gezi trial in Istanbul – and issues in relation to the rule of law and fair trials. We also looked at the preparation of the next presidential and parliamentary elections, due in 2023, including amendments to the electoral legislation currently being discussed by the Grand National Assembly,
We stressed that the activities carried out by the PACE Monitoring Committee aim to promote our common values, which allow us to look for legal and political solutions in a spirit of genuine co-operation. We emphasised that Turkey, as one of the first States to join our Organisation, makes a major contribution to the activities of the Council of Europe. In the field of refugees, for example, the country has gathered know-how which is a source of inspiration in today’s Europe.
This is, in our view, one of the reasons why Turkey should lead the way in strengthening its institutions, and making the rule of law, democracy and human rights prevail in the country. We will closely follow these developments and continue our discussions in the framework of the Monitoring Committee.
