President Gül warns of rising racism, discrimination in Europe

In an address delivered yesterday in Strasbourg during the winter session of PACE, the largest and most important European watchdog overseeing human rights, rule of law and democracy on the continent, Turkish President Abdullah Gül warned about the growing pessimism in Europe that he said was reshaping the continent's political life on the back of increasing manifestations of intolerance and discrimination in many European societies.

“Let us not forget that popular support for explicit anti-Semitism was only 5 percent in the late 1920s. With the snowball effect, this poisonous minority paved the way for the Holocaust in the late 1930s. History does repeat itself if we do not draw lessons from our past mistakes,” he said to deputies from the 47 nations represented in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

“Over the past few years, our member states have been affected by weakening social ties. Radicalization and increasing gaps between different religious, ethnic and cultural communities started to harm the social fabric of our nations,” President Gül remarked, adding: “We must retain confidence in the ability of our democratic institutions to promote human rights, tolerance, dialogue and social cohesion. We need to develop a democratic framework for living together.”

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