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FRANCE FACES BLOWBACK FOR SARKOZY'S FIGHT WITH TURKEY
by ABDULLAH BOZKURT
Today's Zaman
April 16 2012
Turkey
Lost in popular rhetoric and cynical campaign speeches amid a rapidly
rising xenophobic and anti-Muslim mood among the French population was
the embattled French President Nicolas Sarkozy's deliberate attempt to
pick a fight with Turkey, which was Europe's fastest growing economy
as of 2011.
By doing so, Sarkozy did in fact a great disservice to his fellow
countrymen, especially for blue-collar workers, farmers and retirees in
France. While heading towards presidential elections, he unsuccessfully
pushed a major "nuisance law" on Turkey with a shortsighted attempt
to criminalize Armenian genocide denial in French territory. Yet,
I must regretfully say, Sarkozy fared well in alienating the most
vibrant economy in Europe, which has a young, well-educated labor
force, people with great business savvy and an entrepreneurial spirit
as well as industries that enjoy a strong manufacturing base.
With a misguided sense of French nationalism up for grabs in political
rallies across France, understandably it was not easy for French
citizens to realize how much damage this failed law did to future
job creation for working class families, on the security of benefits
French retirees seem to have taken for granted, and on the income of
farmers who have been selling over $1.5 billion worth of livestock
to Turkey annually.
The fact is that many multinational firms, including French, have
already moved their regional headquarters to Turkey to capitalize
on, first and foremost, the rising political clout of Ankara in
southeastern Europe, Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East. That
includes some French multi-nationals as well. Yet Sarkozy has been
doing his best to sever ties with Turkey for reasons unknown to even
French government officials, who acknowledge privately that they have
no idea what the French president is trying to accomplish.
This is not the first time we've tested the waters in France. When
France officially recognized the 1915 killings of Armenians as a
genocide in 2001, Turkish-French relations took a serious blow, which
took years to repair. By the time everything returned to business as
usual, at the initiative of the Socialist Party and with the support
of conservative French President Jacques Chirac, the French Assembly
approved another bill that criminalized the denial of "Armenian
Genocide" in Oct. 12, 2006, throwing ties into chaos once again. The
Senate never took up the bill, effectively killing it in its tracks,
but the damage was done, and repairing the frayed relationship took
many more years than did the 2001 episode.
Now the French did it again with the center-right party leader Sarkozy
pushing a new bill criminalizing the denial of the genocide on the
eve of presidential elections. The bill was approved in the assembly
on Dec. 22, 2011, and was passed by the senate on Jan. 23, 2012. But
France's Constitutional Council struck it down on Feb. 28, 2012,
ruling that the law was contradictory to the principles of freedom of
expression written into France's founding documents. Sarkozy vowed
to keep fighting when he instructed the government to reintroduce
a new bill to parliament, which they submitted on the same day. But
Sarkozy simply ran out of time when the parliament went into recess
on March 6 for the presidential election, which is slated for the
April-May period.
Nonetheless, the sanctions announced by the Turkish government in its
first batch of reactionary measures against France are still being
enforced because the French government did not change its position on
the bill. This time the damage seems to be having a longer-lasting
effect on French interests in Turkey. All of the activities in
terms of exchange of visits, education, training and seminars at
the bilateral political and military levels as well as economic
cooperation are still suspended. The decision to ban all of the EU
twinning projects with French involvement is in effect. There are
no political consultations going on at the bilateral level. France
was shunned from participating in joint military exercises while
France naval vessels are denied entry into Turkish ports. Turkey has
started to examine the overflight, landing or re-fueling permissions
for French military aircraft on a case-by-case basis, revoking the
earlier right to ask for blanket permission for all flights annually.
These measures carry some weight, but they are mostly political
messages. The disturbed bilateral relationship took a real toll on
the business between Turkey and France. The trade volume in the first
two months of 2012 has pretty much stayed dormant with respect to the
same period last year albeit with some slight increases. Turkey's
trade with other EU partners have by and large increased. We could
have and should have done much better with France, provided that there
were no obstacles to the bilateral ties, which thanks, but no thanks,
are owed to Mr. Sarkozy himself.
Even if Cabinet members in the Turkish government announce publicly
that the French are welcome to invest in and do business in Turkey,
the way they are treated in the government bureaucracy is no picnic.
The licensing and permission applications filed by French companies
have obviously been slowed down in the government maze and there is
an undeclared embargo on French companies being offered government
tenders and contracts. All these inevitably have a blowback impact
on French economy in terms of lost jobs and trade revenue.
There is also a sensitive opposition factor in Turkey, which the
government now needs to take into account when dealing with the
French. In the new legislative session of the Turkish Parliament,
there are at least two dozen question motions filed by opposition
party members asking each and every minister to detail what kind of
business relations their ministry is currently pursuing with French
companies or French institutions. As each minister needs to respond
to these questions by law, now even a small amount of cooperation
in Turkish agencies with French counterpart is under scrutiny. For
example, according to the EU ministry, Turkey has implemented 14
"twinning projects" with France out of a total of 118 with EU partners
since 2002. French projects, which were no big deal as they run at
the value of $25 million, are now under parliamentary probe.
But there are other projects valued in multi-million or even
billions of dollars. Just to give you some idea, let me mention two
statements from two different ministries. In a letter dated March
20, 2012 and addressed to Parliament, Environment and Urban Planning
Minister Erdogan Bayraktar listed Bureau de Recherche Géologiques et
Minières (BRGM), the French national institute for research on earth
and environment sciences; the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle
(MNHN), the National Museum of Natural History in Paris; French banking
and insurance firm Groupama; and French consortium Société Anonyme
Francaise d' Etude de Gestion et d' Entreprises (SAFEGE) as partners
doing business with his ministry in Turkey. He said he would comply
with any government directive to slash the business deals when one
is issued.
On March 5, 2012, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz
disclosed to Parliament that French company Vivirad has been working
with the Turkish Petroleum Refineries Corporation (TupraÅ~_), Turkey's
main oil supplier, on a project funded by the Turkish Atomic Energy
Agency (TAEK). He also noted that Turkish Coal Enterprises (TKÄ°)
is working with France's largest governmental research organization,
the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), while Turkey's
Electricity Generation Holding Company (EUAÅ~^) is cooperating with
French firm Alstom on different projects. Yildiz named French companies
Geostock, NVT Perenco, Réseau de Transport d'Ã~Ilectricité (RTE),
SNF SAS Andrezieux, Ardatem and Saint-Gobain SA as companies doing
business with Turkish government agencies. The list is by no means
an exhaustive one.
The French elite understood all the risks associated with Turkish
wrath over genocide allegations and tried to prevent Sarkozy from
dragging France into an uncalled-for dogfight with Turkey, which is
being hailed as a fast-emerging power in Eastern Europe. France's
Constitutional Council put a stop to Sarkozy's love of adventure for
now. I guess the upcoming presidential election will tell us what
direction we are headed towards on the bilateral ties as well.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
by ABDULLAH BOZKURT
Today's Zaman
April 16 2012
Turkey
Lost in popular rhetoric and cynical campaign speeches amid a rapidly
rising xenophobic and anti-Muslim mood among the French population was
the embattled French President Nicolas Sarkozy's deliberate attempt to
pick a fight with Turkey, which was Europe's fastest growing economy
as of 2011.
By doing so, Sarkozy did in fact a great disservice to his fellow
countrymen, especially for blue-collar workers, farmers and retirees in
France. While heading towards presidential elections, he unsuccessfully
pushed a major "nuisance law" on Turkey with a shortsighted attempt
to criminalize Armenian genocide denial in French territory. Yet,
I must regretfully say, Sarkozy fared well in alienating the most
vibrant economy in Europe, which has a young, well-educated labor
force, people with great business savvy and an entrepreneurial spirit
as well as industries that enjoy a strong manufacturing base.
With a misguided sense of French nationalism up for grabs in political
rallies across France, understandably it was not easy for French
citizens to realize how much damage this failed law did to future
job creation for working class families, on the security of benefits
French retirees seem to have taken for granted, and on the income of
farmers who have been selling over $1.5 billion worth of livestock
to Turkey annually.
The fact is that many multinational firms, including French, have
already moved their regional headquarters to Turkey to capitalize
on, first and foremost, the rising political clout of Ankara in
southeastern Europe, Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East. That
includes some French multi-nationals as well. Yet Sarkozy has been
doing his best to sever ties with Turkey for reasons unknown to even
French government officials, who acknowledge privately that they have
no idea what the French president is trying to accomplish.
This is not the first time we've tested the waters in France. When
France officially recognized the 1915 killings of Armenians as a
genocide in 2001, Turkish-French relations took a serious blow, which
took years to repair. By the time everything returned to business as
usual, at the initiative of the Socialist Party and with the support
of conservative French President Jacques Chirac, the French Assembly
approved another bill that criminalized the denial of "Armenian
Genocide" in Oct. 12, 2006, throwing ties into chaos once again. The
Senate never took up the bill, effectively killing it in its tracks,
but the damage was done, and repairing the frayed relationship took
many more years than did the 2001 episode.
Now the French did it again with the center-right party leader Sarkozy
pushing a new bill criminalizing the denial of the genocide on the
eve of presidential elections. The bill was approved in the assembly
on Dec. 22, 2011, and was passed by the senate on Jan. 23, 2012. But
France's Constitutional Council struck it down on Feb. 28, 2012,
ruling that the law was contradictory to the principles of freedom of
expression written into France's founding documents. Sarkozy vowed
to keep fighting when he instructed the government to reintroduce
a new bill to parliament, which they submitted on the same day. But
Sarkozy simply ran out of time when the parliament went into recess
on March 6 for the presidential election, which is slated for the
April-May period.
Nonetheless, the sanctions announced by the Turkish government in its
first batch of reactionary measures against France are still being
enforced because the French government did not change its position on
the bill. This time the damage seems to be having a longer-lasting
effect on French interests in Turkey. All of the activities in
terms of exchange of visits, education, training and seminars at
the bilateral political and military levels as well as economic
cooperation are still suspended. The decision to ban all of the EU
twinning projects with French involvement is in effect. There are
no political consultations going on at the bilateral level. France
was shunned from participating in joint military exercises while
France naval vessels are denied entry into Turkish ports. Turkey has
started to examine the overflight, landing or re-fueling permissions
for French military aircraft on a case-by-case basis, revoking the
earlier right to ask for blanket permission for all flights annually.
These measures carry some weight, but they are mostly political
messages. The disturbed bilateral relationship took a real toll on
the business between Turkey and France. The trade volume in the first
two months of 2012 has pretty much stayed dormant with respect to the
same period last year albeit with some slight increases. Turkey's
trade with other EU partners have by and large increased. We could
have and should have done much better with France, provided that there
were no obstacles to the bilateral ties, which thanks, but no thanks,
are owed to Mr. Sarkozy himself.
Even if Cabinet members in the Turkish government announce publicly
that the French are welcome to invest in and do business in Turkey,
the way they are treated in the government bureaucracy is no picnic.
The licensing and permission applications filed by French companies
have obviously been slowed down in the government maze and there is
an undeclared embargo on French companies being offered government
tenders and contracts. All these inevitably have a blowback impact
on French economy in terms of lost jobs and trade revenue.
There is also a sensitive opposition factor in Turkey, which the
government now needs to take into account when dealing with the
French. In the new legislative session of the Turkish Parliament,
there are at least two dozen question motions filed by opposition
party members asking each and every minister to detail what kind of
business relations their ministry is currently pursuing with French
companies or French institutions. As each minister needs to respond
to these questions by law, now even a small amount of cooperation
in Turkish agencies with French counterpart is under scrutiny. For
example, according to the EU ministry, Turkey has implemented 14
"twinning projects" with France out of a total of 118 with EU partners
since 2002. French projects, which were no big deal as they run at
the value of $25 million, are now under parliamentary probe.
But there are other projects valued in multi-million or even
billions of dollars. Just to give you some idea, let me mention two
statements from two different ministries. In a letter dated March
20, 2012 and addressed to Parliament, Environment and Urban Planning
Minister Erdogan Bayraktar listed Bureau de Recherche Géologiques et
Minières (BRGM), the French national institute for research on earth
and environment sciences; the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle
(MNHN), the National Museum of Natural History in Paris; French banking
and insurance firm Groupama; and French consortium Société Anonyme
Francaise d' Etude de Gestion et d' Entreprises (SAFEGE) as partners
doing business with his ministry in Turkey. He said he would comply
with any government directive to slash the business deals when one
is issued.
On March 5, 2012, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz
disclosed to Parliament that French company Vivirad has been working
with the Turkish Petroleum Refineries Corporation (TupraÅ~_), Turkey's
main oil supplier, on a project funded by the Turkish Atomic Energy
Agency (TAEK). He also noted that Turkish Coal Enterprises (TKÄ°)
is working with France's largest governmental research organization,
the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), while Turkey's
Electricity Generation Holding Company (EUAÅ~^) is cooperating with
French firm Alstom on different projects. Yildiz named French companies
Geostock, NVT Perenco, Réseau de Transport d'Ã~Ilectricité (RTE),
SNF SAS Andrezieux, Ardatem and Saint-Gobain SA as companies doing
business with Turkish government agencies. The list is by no means
an exhaustive one.
The French elite understood all the risks associated with Turkish
wrath over genocide allegations and tried to prevent Sarkozy from
dragging France into an uncalled-for dogfight with Turkey, which is
being hailed as a fast-emerging power in Eastern Europe. France's
Constitutional Council put a stop to Sarkozy's love of adventure for
now. I guess the upcoming presidential election will tell us what
direction we are headed towards on the bilateral ties as well.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress