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ANKARA: Erdogan Slams French President Over EU Bid

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  • ANKARA: Erdogan Slams French President Over EU Bid

    ERDOGAN SLAMS FRENCH PRESIDENT OVER EU BID

    Journal of Turkish Weekly
    Monday, 1 February 2010

    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticized French
    President Nicolas Sarkozy over his opposition to Turkey joining the
    European Union in an interview to mark the launch of the Euronews
    television channel's new Turkish language service.

    In his first interview with the European TV channel Euronews on
    Saturday, Erdogan spoke about a range of topics, from Turkey's
    negotiations aimed at eventual full membership in the European Union
    to Cyprus, relations with Israel, and questions on Kurds and Armenia.

    The Turkish prime minister said some of the EU member states were
    not acting honestly during Turkey's ongoing negotiation with the bloc.

    "This is where a problem arises. Why am I saying this? Because they
    are trying to corner Turkey with conditions that do not exist in the
    acquis communautaire [the total accumulated body of EU law]. This is
    really wrong," he said.

    Pointing to Sarkozy's stance regarding Turkey's EU bid, Erdogan said:
    "One cannot easily comprehend what Mr. Sarkozy does. But no matter
    what they do, or what kind of obstacles they put in front of us,
    we will keep walking, patiently."

    He said his country would continue negotiations until all the EU
    members say they do not want Turkey. EU membership has been "a dream
    for our country for half a century," he added. Erdogan said the EU
    should not become a "Christian club," adding that, "The EU should not
    take part in a campaign of Islamophobia. Any country doing this must
    be warned."

    EU's 'historical' Cyprus mistake

    Answering questions on the longstanding dispute over Cyprus, Erdogan
    said the European Union had not been honest about the issue until now.

    "The EU bears a great deal of responsibility for the current deadlock
    over Cyprus. They made a historical error in accepting the south of
    Cyprus into the EU," he said.

    In response to whether he expected to see Cyprus reunited in the near
    future, Erdogan said the Greek Cypriot party always avoided a direct
    approach and thus should be warned by the EU. "We are striving to
    resolve the issue this year. And we want it to be resolved under the
    umbrella of the United Nations," he said.

    Replying to a question about the government's initiatives regarding
    the Kurdish population, Erdogan said: "This has been one of the
    most important items on the agenda in recent days. But calling it a
    Kurdish issue will undermine, weaken this project. This project is
    one of national unity and friendship."

    Erdogan said it would be disrespectful to other groups in Turkey if
    such a matter was considered exclusively a "Kurdish issue."

    "This plan, this project, covers all of them," he said.

    Losing an ally

    Speaking about future relations between Turkey and Israel, Erdogan
    said Israel should give some thought to what it would be like to lose
    a friend like Turkey in the future. "The way they recently treated
    our ambassador has no place in international politics. We have done
    our best for Israel-Syria relations. But now we see [Israeli Prime
    Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu saying, 'I do not trust Erdogan, but I
    trust Sarkozy.'"

    Erdogan also said if Israel believed it was a world power, it should
    take another look at the relationship it has with its neighbors.

    He also commented on the Israeli foreign ministry's recent accusation
    of being the cause of the rising tension between Turkey and Israel
    by saying: "I am telling the truth, and I will keep telling the truth.

    When innocent civilians are ruthlessly killed, struck by phosphorus
    bombs, infrastructure is demolished in bombings and people are forced
    to live in an open-air prison... we cannot see this as compatible
    with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."

    'Turkey fulfills protocol commitments'

    Replying to a final question on the Armenian Constitutional Court's
    interpretation of the recent Turkish-Armenian protocols, Erdogan
    said: "We appear to have gotten off to an unhealthy start. What are
    we negotiating about? What are we going to do? Armenia should once
    again take this into consideration because we fulfilled our protocol
    commitments." Erdogan also said both sides had road maps, and the
    process would continue.

    Turkish officials said Sunday that Euronews would open a significant
    door to Turkey. At a ceremony Sunday held by the Istanbul Chamber
    of Commerce, ITO, Turkey's State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister
    Bulent Arınc said Turkey had much to gain from Euronews as a window
    to Turkey.

    "Turkey's full EU membership bid will get stronger with the
    contributions of Euronews," Arınc said.

    Speaking at Saturday's launch ceremony, Pier Luigi Malesani, an
    executive of the Euronews, said Turkey would become closer to Europe
    with Euronews broadcastings. "A European Union that does not include
    Turkey would not be complete - it would be missing something," he said.

    Lyon-based Euronews TV channel already broadcasts in Arabic, English,
    French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian for 24 hours
    a day. Turkish is the ninth language for Euronews. A Turkish language
    news channel will go on air throughout the world through 34 satellites.

    Under an agreement signed in 2008, TRT became the fourth biggest
    partner in Euronews with a 15.7 percent stake.

    Euronews has 21 shareholders including leading national TV channels
    from European countries. France has 25 percent, Italy 21 percent,
    Russia 19 percent and Switzerland 9 percent shares in the news channel.

    Founded in 1992 in Lyon as a European Broadcasting Union initiative,
    Euronews beams into 293 million households in 150 countries by cable,
    satellite and terrestrial 24 hours a day with more than 400 staff
    from different nationalities.

    In terms of audience, Euronews is the most watched news channel
    in Europe.
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