Chirac to defend backing for Turkey EU talks
By John Thornhill in Paris

FT
December 14 2004 20:41

Jacques Chirac will on Wednesday night give a rare television
interview to explain why he favours opening accession talks with
Turkey while the majority of his compatriots oppose the idea.

The French president will have to be at his persuasive best, just two
days before European Union leaders are expected to approve a
Commission recommendation to start entry talks with Turkey.

An opinion poll published by Le Figaro newspaper this week showed that
67 per cent of French voters opposed Turkey’s entry, making France the
most sceptical of the EU’s big countries. Resistance runs even higher
among Mr Chirac’s own party, with 71 per cent of UMP supporters
against Turkish membership.

There are several reasons why Turkey’s admission inflames such debate
in France, ranging from esoteric arguments about the dilution of the
EU’s essence to scarcely veiled Islamophobia on the extreme right.

Many MPs are also angry that Mr Chirac has not allowed them more of a
say on such an important issue. The government allowed a parliamentary
debate in October on Turkey but did not subject itself to a binding
vote.

Sylvie Goulard, a political science professor, says that if Turkey
were admitted to the EU – becoming its biggest and poorest member
state – it would kill the dream of Europe’s founders of an ever deeper
and closer union. The French government’s failure to initiate a proper
debate on this issue has created a public backlash.

“If you want to change the whole European project then you have to
take into account the views of the people,” she says. “But they have
refused until now to talk to the public and that is why they are in a
mess.”

France’s Armenian population, estimated at about 300,000, has also
been influential, highlighting Turkey’s refusal to accept
responsibility for the Armenian genocide of 1915 and Ankara’s poor
human rights record.

The French government has scrambled to mollify public opinion by
insisting that the future is not pre- ordained, that Turkey’s possible
admission is more than a decade away, and that voters will be given
their say on Turkey’s membership in a referendum. French diplomats
have also been exploring the possibility of offering Ankara a
“privileged partnership” with the EU.

Moreover, Michel Barnier, the French foreign minister, has this week
attempted to parry criticisms from the Armenian community by urging
Ankara to face up to its past. “The European pro- ject is founded on
the very idea of reconciliation,” he said yesterday. “I think the time
has come for Turkey to make an effort to address the memory of this
tragedy which has affected hundreds of hundreds of thousands of
Armenians.”

Opinion polls show that many French voters could be persuaded to
change their minds on Turkey’s membership if Ankara fulfilled its
promises to reform over the next decade.

Even Harout Mardirossian, president of the Committee for the Defence
of the Armenian Cause, says it is possible to imagine a thoroughly
reformed Turkey being admitted into the EU.

But Mr Chirac is staking an enormous amount on Turkey’s ability to
deliver on reform. In the meantime, he risks isolation within his own
party and among the public. His great fear is that the intensity of
the Turkey debate could yet infect next year’s referendum on the EU
constitutional treaty.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress