Fischers Rede vom 26. Januar 2016
Fischer fordert faire Debatte
Hier nun die von mir am 26. Janaur 2016 gehaltene Rede, wie sie im Protokoll des Europarates dokumentieret ist. Gehalten habe ich sie in deutscher Sprache!
Gesprochen habe ich für die EVP/CD Fraktion in der Parlamentarischen Versammlung des Europarates, deren Vorsitzender ich zu diesem Zeitpunkt war.
"Mr FISCHER (Germany)* – Mr President, colleagues, today we are discussing two reports, and our group had controversial discussions on both. That is not surprising, because our group has members from both Azerbaijan and Armenia. I have an urgent request: we must express ourselves carefully, behave fairly and not impute things to people. We must be clear that responsibility for resolving the issue lies with the Minsk Group, not us. Our democratic forum is responsible for discussing human rights and the rule of law. We cannot exhaust the whole range of possibilities. We must consider the situation not only in Armenia and Azerbaijan, but in many other countries as well.
I am from Karlsruhe in nearby Baden and I was the rapporteur on Armenia for many years. On my first trip to Armenia, I attended a dinner. I have great personal respect for the way in which the Germans and the French got together and talked to one another after the Second World War. These people had hated each other, but they tried to find solutions. After that conflict, people thought, “How can things work out positively for future generations?” If we look at the situation today, we will see that they were successful. It is very good that those ladies and gentlemen sat around a table and examined how they could overcome the difficulty of getting people who had previously been enemies to shake hands.
Our generation, however, takes that for granted. Many young people believe it to be self-evident that the Germans are friendly with the French and that they work closely together. I want to see the same thing happening in Armenia and Azerbaijan, so that future generations can reach out to one another, shake hands and build a future.
As a first step, this debate needs to show that, despite our differences, we have respect for one another, that we listen to one another on where the problems might lie, and that we can make progress. I call on speakers to show respect for one another and to have a fair debate.
The PRESIDENT – Danke schön, Mr Fischer. I now call Ms Barnett, on behalf of the Socialist Group."