Council of Europe must avoid new dividing lines: FM

ANKARA-Anadolu Agency

The Council of Europe must avoid new dividing lines in Europe and it should fight together against them, Turkey said on May 17.

“#CoE must avoid new dividing lines in Europe. [It] should prevent the politicization of expert mechanisms that only undermines its credibility,” tweeted Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.

Çavuşoğlu was in Finland on May 17 where he was set to participate in a meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, Europe’s top human rights watchdog.

“[The council] must fight together against rising xenophobia, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, hate speech, and populism,” Çavuşoğlu said.

Meeting with his German counterpart Heiko Maas in Helsinki, Çavuşoğlu said a “Strategic Dialogue Mechanism” meeting will soon be held between Turkey and Germany as well as intergovernmental consultations between two countries.

Finland is expected to hand over the presidency of the Committee of Ministers to France during the meeting.

Turkish foreign minister on May 16 held bilateral meetings in Finland’s capital.

“Discussed in a constructive way all issues between our countries w/FM [foreign minister] of #Greece Georgios Katrougalos,” Çavuşoğlu said in a Twitter post.

Çavuşoğlu also met Finland’s Foreign Minister Timo Soini, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Secretary-General Thomas Greminger and Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani.

Earlier, Çavuşoğlu also attended a ceremony marking 70th anniversary of the Council of Europe.