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FRENCH DEFENCE MINISTER VISITS TURKEY TO DISCUSS SYRIA, JOINT PROJECTS
Today's Zaman, Turkey
March 29 2013
French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian began a visit to Turkey on
Friday for talks on bilateral defence projects as well as the crisis
in Syria.
The visiting minister met with his Turkish counterpart, Ismet Yilmaz,
to seek ways to strengthen current cooperation in defence projects
between NATO allies Turkey and France, especially the issue of
tenders in the defence industry. The ministers also discussed arming
the opposition fighting forces loyal to Syria's embattled president,
Bashar al-Assad.
Le Drian's two-day visit comes at the invitation of Yilmaz.
French companies have suffered badly in regards to defence industry
tenders as a result of political bickering between Ankara and Paris
during the last 10 years over the recognition of mass killings of
Armenians in Anatolia in 1915.
Ankara earlier vowed to impose sanctions on France over a controversial
piece of legislation that was overturned by the French Constitutional
Council which would have made it illegal to deny that the killing of
ethnic Armenians in 1915 at the hands of the Ottomans was genocide.
The latest situations in Syria, Mali and Afghanistan are also among
the issues discussed between the two ministers. With no end in sight
to the two-year-old conflict in Syria, France is one of the countries
that have started to defend the notion of arming the Syrian opposition,
asking for the lifting of an EU ban on sending weapons.
Earlier this month, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said
France and Britain will ask for an EU meeting to lift the embargo,
possibly by the end of the month. The current embargo expires in May.
In remarks to French media, Fabius claimed that ending such an arms
embargo would be useful in preventing the further consolidation of
groups affiliated with al-Qaeda among the ranks of the armed Syrian
opposition.
France, which has recently withdrawn its forces under NATO command in
Afghanistan, is maintaining the ground and air operations it launched
in the West African country of Mali to break the Islamist rebels' hold
in the country. UN troops and forces from African-based organizations
also support France in its military mission.
Today's Zaman, Turkey
March 29 2013
French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian began a visit to Turkey on
Friday for talks on bilateral defence projects as well as the crisis
in Syria.
The visiting minister met with his Turkish counterpart, Ismet Yilmaz,
to seek ways to strengthen current cooperation in defence projects
between NATO allies Turkey and France, especially the issue of
tenders in the defence industry. The ministers also discussed arming
the opposition fighting forces loyal to Syria's embattled president,
Bashar al-Assad.
Le Drian's two-day visit comes at the invitation of Yilmaz.
French companies have suffered badly in regards to defence industry
tenders as a result of political bickering between Ankara and Paris
during the last 10 years over the recognition of mass killings of
Armenians in Anatolia in 1915.
Ankara earlier vowed to impose sanctions on France over a controversial
piece of legislation that was overturned by the French Constitutional
Council which would have made it illegal to deny that the killing of
ethnic Armenians in 1915 at the hands of the Ottomans was genocide.
The latest situations in Syria, Mali and Afghanistan are also among
the issues discussed between the two ministers. With no end in sight
to the two-year-old conflict in Syria, France is one of the countries
that have started to defend the notion of arming the Syrian opposition,
asking for the lifting of an EU ban on sending weapons.
Earlier this month, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said
France and Britain will ask for an EU meeting to lift the embargo,
possibly by the end of the month. The current embargo expires in May.
In remarks to French media, Fabius claimed that ending such an arms
embargo would be useful in preventing the further consolidation of
groups affiliated with al-Qaeda among the ranks of the armed Syrian
opposition.
France, which has recently withdrawn its forces under NATO command in
Afghanistan, is maintaining the ground and air operations it launched
in the West African country of Mali to break the Islamist rebels' hold
in the country. UN troops and forces from African-based organizations
also support France in its military mission.