Turkey set to host major cOe meetings

The Aegean province of Izmir next week will host a conference on the future of the European Court of Human Rights as part of Turkey's chairmanship of the Council of Europe's (CoE) decision-making body, the Committee of Ministers. As part of the two-day meeting, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who chairs the committee, will hold a joint press conference with CoE Secretary-General Thorbjorn Jagland and the court's head, Jean-Paul Costa. In related news, next month Istanbul will host a meeting of the committee, where it will hand over the helm to Ukraine, after holding it since last November. At the end of the meeting, participants are expected to release a declaration stressing the CoE's key role in maintaining Europe's democratic stability.