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Part One. Article 3 31The last amendments are reflected in the final text of the convention, as included in thereport of the Ad Hoc Committee (A/55/383, sect. IV, draft resolution, annex I), that wassubmitted to the General Assembly for adoption pursuant to resolution 54/126 of 17December 1999.5. It should be noted that Turkey considered the draft convention a valuable tool infighting organized crime, in line with the consistent determination and support of Turkeyfor bilateral and multilateral cooperation in combating that phenomenon. For that reason,Turkey had attributed great importance to the development of the draft convention and hadparticipated actively in the process from its initial stages. Turkey had been confident untilthe final phase of the negotiations that the convention would cover all aspects of transnationalorganized crime. The experience of Turkey had demonstrated that there were evidentlinks between terrorist crimes and organized crime. Those links had been establishedat the World Ministerial Conference on Organized Transnational Crime, held in Naples,Italy, in 1994. Turkey therefore believed that the reflection of those dangerous links in thetext of the convention would better serve that instrument’s purposes. Unfortunately, anddespite the efforts of several delegations to draw attention to those links through constructiveand concrete proposals, the links had been consciously omitted from the final text ofthe draft convention. The result was not satisfactory to Turkey, because the conventionwould leave loopholes that criminals might exploit. Nevertheless, Turkey did not intendto block consensus on the approval of the draft convention. Following careful evaluation,its competent authorities would decide whether Turkey would sign the convention.6. Egypt placed on record its position on the work of the Ad Hoc Committee at itstenth session and on the draft convention. Egypt had participated, with all commitmentand responsibility, in all stages of the negotiation process, pursuing the common objectiveof fighting against a very serious criminal phenomenon affecting, to varying degrees, allcountries of the world. Acting on the principle that, in preparing an international convention,the concerns of some were the concerns of all, Egypt had repeatedly called for includingin the convention a clear and express reference to the growing relationship betweentransnational organized crime and terrorist crimes. That plea was in conformity with variousUnited Nations instruments that had affirmed that fact, including resolution 4 of theNinth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders.Egypt had demonstrated great flexibility regarding the way in which such a reference wouldbe embodied in the convention and had expected that such flexibility would have beenmet with a greater degree of understanding, so that the convention, being of worldwidescope, would reflect the concerns of all States. Egypt expressed deep regret at the deliberateomission from the text of the convention of a serious dimension of transnationalorganized crime, represented in the link between such crime and terrorism. Such a lacunaconstituted a basic shortcoming in the convention, which would weaken international cooperationin containing and eliminating the phenomenon of terrorism and might prevent theconvention from becoming an influential element of the international legal system thatserved the interests of all.