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  • BAKU: Europe needs Turkey

    Trend, Azerbaijan
    Dec 23 2011


    Europe needs Turkey


    23 December 2011, 20:48 (GMT+04:00) Trend Arabic News Service Head
    Rufiz Hafizoglu

    Official Ankara officially response to Paris after the lower house of
    the French Parliament adopted the law on a criminal penalty for the
    denial of the so-called "Armenian genocide".
    In response to the "humane" decision of the French Parliament, Turkish
    Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara imposes the first
    stage of sanctions, consisting of eight points, against Paris.

    These sanctions include Turkish ambassador's withdrawal from France,
    the freezing of bilateral economic, political and military talks, the
    ban on the use of Turkish air bases and ports by French military
    aircrafts and ships without a special permit, the cancellation of a
    joint Turkish-French meeting on economic issues, the abolition of all
    military exercises with France.
    According to many political analysts, the sanctions imposed at the
    first stage, will not rather affect on France. Turkey will not
    seriously respond to the new law for the sake of joining the EU.

    But the Turkish growing economy, Ankara's role in the region and the
    fact that Turkey plays a leading role in European energy security give
    grounds to say that the imposed sanctions will harm the French economy
    because Turkey can boycott French goods within the country, even if it
    is unofficial.
    If we consider the volume of total trade turnover, Turkey ranks the
    eleventh place among the countries importing French goods (6 billion
    euro) and France - the sixteenth place among the countries importing
    Turkish goods (5.402 million euro).

    The cars produced in France rank first among the goods which France
    exports to Turkey. The production volume of the French car industry
    exported to Turkey in 2011 amounted to 761 million euro.

    Besides the cars, France exports aircraft engines, pharmaceuticals,
    plastic raw materials to Turkey.
    Turkey exported textile products to the amount of 412 million euro,
    household appliances worth 292 million euro to France in 2011.

    According to the statistics, the volume of investments of 350 Turkish
    companies operating in France hit $ 500 million. Regarding the tourism
    sector, the number of French tourists visiting Turkey hit more than
    1.250.000 people last year.

    However, it is possible that the French companies EDF, GDF Suez and
    Areva, which plan to participate in the construction of a nuclear
    power plant in Turkey, may be out of this process.
    At present, Turkey is the only country using its geopolitical
    position. It plays a role of a major transit country in supplying
    energy resources to Europe. Thus, Turkey plays a significant role in
    supplying Azerbaijani, Turkmen and Iraqi gas to Europe. Regarding the
    lack of other alternative transit country for energy supplies to
    Europe, the latter is in a state of dependence on Turkey.

    If we take into account all these facts, despite the lower house of
    the French Parliament adopted the law on a criminal penalty for the
    denial of the so-called "Armenian genocide", the Senate is unlikely to
    adopt the bill directed against Turkey.




    From: A. Papazian
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