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Turkish President To Lobby Reluctant France For EU Membership

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  • Turkish President To Lobby Reluctant France For EU Membership

    TURKISH PRESIDENT TO LOBBY RELUCTANT FRANCE FOR EU MEMBERSHIP

    Wednesday 07 October 2009

    Turkish President Abdullah Gul flew into France on Wednesday,
    officially in the context of a Turkish cultural season in France. But
    he is also expected to lobby hard for Turkey's bid for EU membership.

    AFP - President Abdullah Gul flew into France on Wednesday to bring
    Turkey's campaign for membership of the European Union to the country
    that is leading the drive to exclude it.

    Gul was greeted at the airport by France's Minister for European
    Affairs Pierre Lellouche, according to French officials, and began
    a three-day programme of meetings and speeches.

    Before setting off, he insisted his mainly-Muslim state was making
    good progress on reforms required by the 27-nation bloc.

    He is nevertheless expected to meet firm opposition from his French
    counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy.

    "Our priority is to put into practice what we learned from the
    European Union. We are focused on this aim since we came to power,"
    Gul told AFP, defending the record of his Islamist-rooted government.

    Gul was to meet foreign policy experts later Wednesday and Prime
    Minister Francois Fillon on Thursday, taking time to persuade French
    opinion of his case before meeting Sarkozy, who is staunchly opposed
    to Turkey's bid, on Friday.

    Turkey began membership negotiations in 2005, but has so far opened
    talks in only 11 of the 35 policy areas that candidates must complete,
    while France, Germany and other EU members have sought to slow or
    halt the process.

    Sarkozy says Turkey -- of which only a small portion west of the
    Bosphorus is geographically in Europe and whose large population
    would be the first in the bloc to be mainly Muslim -- should settle
    for a partnership agreement.

    In June, hopes that France might soften its stance were raised when
    Sarkozy appointed a new minister for Europe, Pierre Lellouche, known
    to favour Turkish membership. The minister, however, now publicly
    backs his president.

    "We want Turkey to be a bridge between East and West," Sarkozy declared
    in June during an appearance with President Barack Obama at which he
    disagreed with the US leader's support for Turkish EU membership.

    "I told President Obama that it's very important for Europe to have
    borders.

    For me, Europe is a force stability in the world and I cannot allow
    that force for stabilisation to be destroyed," Sarkozy declared.

    This position, which is popular with a French electorate nervous of
    allowing 76 million new citizens to compete on the European job market,
    is unlikely to change this week.

    And, despite window dressing such as a Turkish cultural season to be
    held in France from this week, relations between the two countries
    are tense.

    "In the past five years you can see a real degradation in ties. Bridges
    have been burned. Polite talk won't change anything," said Didier
    Billion, of the Institute of International and Strategic Relations
    in Paris.

    Billion said France had a "schizophrenic attitude" with Turkey,
    on the one hand reaching out with gestures like a cultural season,
    on the other thwarting its diplomatic initiatives.

    Lellouche has suggested that Turkey could arrange privileged trading
    ties with Europe -- "like we have with Brazil" -- but Gul has argues
    his country could have special value as Europe's Muslim partner.

    "When the EU began to have links with Turkey, this country was already
    a Muslim country, there is nothing new in this. Besides, the EU never
    defined itself as a religious union," Gul said.

    "Its common values are democracy, human rights and the supremacy of
    the rule of law. It is on this basis that we have built our relations
    with Europe.

    "Not only does Turkey adopt the criteria of Europe, but it also plays
    a role in spreading these values in the region," he said, suggesting
    Turkish membership could improve ties with the Middle East.

    France appreciates Turkey's engagement in the diplomatic problems
    posed by Iran, Syria and the Middle East conflict, and hails Ankara's
    renewal of ties with Armenia and efforts to improve the fate of its
    own Kurdish minority.

    But Paris has been disappointed by Turkey's failure to resolve its
    longstanding sovereignty dispute with Cyprus or halt the stream of
    illegal immigrants flowing through its territory towards the Union.

    France was also shocked when Turkey opposed Anders Fogh Rasmussen's
    appointment as NATO secretary general because of his Danish
    government's support for free expression in the row over cartoons of
    the Prophet Mohammed.

    French economic ties with Turkey have been hit by the tension,
    according to Billion, with several companies including Gaz de France
    finding themselves excluded from major deals such as the Nabucco gas
    pipeline project.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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