Turkey pays special attention to maintaining a positive dialogue with all officials of the Council of Europe, of which it is a founding member. With this understanding, Mr. Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, will pay a visit to Turkey on 25 June 2013 upon the invitation of our Government.

Contributing to the development of international human rights norms and maintaining close cooperation with international mechanisms are amongst our Government’s priorities. The comprehensive reforms in the fields of democracy, the rule of law and human rights carried out in Turkey, especially in the last decade and witnessed in every area of social life stem to a large extent from the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights and, in this framework, from the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. Therefore, the norms of the Council of Europe are important for our Government’s continuing strong will to reform.