Türkiye and the Council of Europe are coordinating efforts to fight rising anti-Muslim sentiment across the continent, the council's director of communications, Daniel Höltgen, said, adding that he is grateful for Ankara's support.

"Fighting discrimination is one of the important activities of the council, and I was fortunate enough to be the first special representative on combating anti-Semitism, but I also included Europe’s largest minority religion, namely Islam, so the position was created of the first representative to combat anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim racism," Höltgen said.

One consideration was also that the Council of Europe, as opposed to the European Union, has two or three countries where Islam is the majority religion and they, therefore, also have an interest in protecting people of the Muslim faith from discrimination – which unfortunately they are.

"I was very grateful for the support I received from the Turkish republic in this mandate, also in terms of personnel. I take this seriously. I received support from others, too, but I think sometimes things have to be named," he explained.

"We do face it, unfortunately – I witnessed it. I have spoken with many Muslims and Muslim leaders in this country as well as others – that there is a phenomenon of anti-Muslim racism. It is not good. I think people need to progress," he added.

He said that Humza Yousaf, Scotland's first minister who became the first Muslim leader of a government in Western Europe, or London Mayor Sadiq Khan "one of the best mayors London has ever had" are examples of development on the issue in Europe, stressing: "This should be possible everywhere, in all countries without discrimination."

Anti-Muslim attacks involving threatening letters with neo-Nazi symbols and burnings of the Quran were quite common across Western Europe last year.

According to Turkish diplomatic sources, while incidents involving the burning of the Quran occurred 15 times in Europe in 2022, the Turkish Foreign Ministry detected 507 attacks against Islam's holy book in Western Europe in 2023.

Mosques were targeted 34 times in Europe in 2022, which increased to 68 in 2023, exposing the grave level of Islamophobia in the continent.

Türkiye took initiatives on multilateral platforms in 2023, leading efforts against Islamophobia with organizations such as the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Council of Europe.

Türkiye has a long history with this organization, Höltgen underlined, stressing Ankara's role as a founding member of the Council of Europe, calling it a proud, significant and influential member.

Türkiye was invited to the Council of Europe as a founding member in August 1949 and joined the institution three months after its establishment.

Although the council's agenda has been extended to include priorities like protecting Ukraine, its core focus remains on issues such as the rule of law, the right to a fair trial, freedom of expression and assembly, and combating discrimination.

Reiterating that the council was founded after a war and that Europe again faced war, Höltgen said, "We try to maintain the unity and peace on this continent as the first European organization that was created after World War II."

On the other hand, Höltgen said that despite occasional discussions of Türkiye leaving the council or suspending its voting rights, there had been no calls for sanctions against Türkiye within the Council of Europe.

He reiterated that there are no voices within the Council of Europe advocating Türkiye's exit. "I see absolutely no political appetite for this at the moment," Höltgen said, adding that theoretically, it is possible that Ankara could be first suspended and then its membership ended if a two-thirds majority of member states decide so.

"There was a discourse that a signal should be shown, and actually, an infringement procedure was launched," he pointed out, referring to the proceeding launched against Türkiye due to its refusal to implement the 2019 judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and immediately release Osman Kavala.

He added, though, that the council's current focus is unity against the ongoing war on the continent and challenges such as climate change or artificial intelligence.

"The only European country where we hear the leadership sometimes questioning its membership in the Council of Europe and the convention is the U.K.," Höltgen said, indicating the council's disagreement with the U.K.'s legislation to deport migrants to Rwanda.

Still, he emphasized that the council has never called into question London's membership. "However, Russia was expelled because of its continued war of aggression against Ukraine. So, this was a new reality last year that we had to face to lose our biggest member state, but there was no alternative to that," Höltgen underlined.