Council of Europe will vigorously investigate Gaza incident, PACE president believes

PanARMENIAN.Net - PACE President Mevlut Cavusoglu has warned Israel that Europe’s largest intergovernmental organization will investigate the incident with Gaza-bound flotilla.

In an interview with Sunday’s Zaman in the Turkish capital, Cavusoglu said Israel, an observer member at the Council of Europe, had violated important human rights principles embraced by the organization.

He predicted that there would be consequences in the assembly's summer session, due at the end of June. “The Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly value the rule of law, human rights and democracy. Israel was committed to these values [as seen] by signing up to be an observing member. But, with this raid in open waters, it violated a number of values espoused by this body,” he remarked.

“This crisis with Israel will hamper our efforts in our Partnership for Democracy project and curtail efforts at dialogue in the Subcommittee on the Middle East,” Cavusoglu said. “In the midst of all goodwill efforts in the Council of Europe to increase dialogue in the Middle East, this attack came as a shock to us. We had to respond. Both the term president, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and I issued statements condemning this attack in international waters,” he added.

The PACE president emphasized that the Council of Europe's purpose in having dialogue with non-members is to effect a positive improvement with respect to democracy in these countries or to help those countries wishing to take steps for improving democracy, human rights and freedoms. “We are trying to explain what these values of the Council of Europe mean. Of course, the countries concerned should have a positive attitude towards it. It does not make sense if we are the only party willing to cooperate,” he noted.

PACE is planning to take up the incident in an upcoming session to be held between June 21 and 25.

“My impression is that we will have an emergency meeting on the Israeli raid and that a rapporteur will be appointed to write a report on the incident,” Cavusoglu said.

The PACE president believes that the Council of Europe will vigorously investigate what happened to the aid flotilla and carefully monitor Israeli activities in that regard.

Cavusoglu also recalled that the Council of Europe asked Turkey, his native country, to investigate the deaths of non-Muslims including prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. “We do this for all countries represented in the Council of Europe. Israel is no exception,” he underlined.