Associated Press Worldstream
December 15, 2004 Wednesday 7:09 PM Eastern Time
Chirac tells a divided France that Turkey belongs in EU if it meets
membership conditions
WILLIAM J. KOLE; Associated Press Writer
President Jacques Chirac, beset by opposition to Turkey’s drive to
join the European Union, told a divided France that the mostly Muslim
country belongs in the EU – but that Paris will block negotiations if
Ankara fails to meet membership conditions.
“Does Europe, and particularly France, have an interest in Turkey
joining it? My answer is, ‘Yes, if,”‘ the French leader said
Wednesday in a nationally televised interview on the eve of an EU
summit that will decide whether to open membership talks with Ankara
next year.
“Yes, if Turkey totally meets the conditions we impose on any
candidate for our union,” Chirac said.
France reserves the right to block the negotiations if Turkey fails
to meet the criteria, and the French “will have the last word” on
admitting the country, he added in a nod to those who have doubts
about bringing in the Turks.
Chirac spoke in an interview with TF1 television recorded earlier in
the day at the presidential Elysee Palace and aired nationwide
Wednesday evening. EU leaders meeting in Brussels, Belgium, were
expected to decide on Thursday or Friday whether to launch membership
negotiations.
Chirac’s support for Turkey’s eventual membership has been met with
grave misgivings among ordinary citizens worried about an influx of
cheap labor to France, already stung by 10 percent unemployment. Many
here also question Turkey’s human rights record.
A poll published earlier this week by the newspaper Le Figaro
suggests two in three French oppose bringing Turkey into the
25-nation bloc. The Socialist Party is divided over the issue, and
Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front, insists
Turkey is a country that “cannot be European.”
“Only a rejection of the European constitution can save the French
from this trap,” Le Pen said Wednesday. “This willingness to
integrate an Asian and Muslim country, against the will of the
European people, illustrates the noxiousness of Brussels’ Europe.”
By throwing his support behind Turkey, Chirac also has broken ranks
with his own party, the conservative Union for a Popular Movement,
which favors a “privileged partnership” between the EU and Ankara
that would fall far short of membership.
Chirac rejected the idea in Wednesday’s interview.
“To ask a country like Turkey, a great country with a rich and long
history, to make a considerable effort to reach a risky or partial
result is not reasonable,” he said.
“We will take a very heavy responsibility for history if, faced with
a people who tell us, ‘We have adopted all your values, all your
rules, all your objectives,’ we tell them, ‘Ah, no thanks,”‘ Chirac
said.
Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, also
dismissed the idea, calling it “unjust” and warning that Turkey
likely would see it as discriminatory.
Barroso told France-2 television the EU should open membership talks
with Turkey immediately, insisting “this is the moment,” while
conceding the country has not yet met all the requirements.
“In 10 years, Turkey won’t be the same Turkey as today … and
certain fears that exist today can be put aside,” he said.
Although Chirac favors full membership for Turkey, while conceding it
could take 10 to 15 years, a skeptical Prime Minister Jean-Pierre
Raffarin argues that the influence of Islam in Turkey would clash
with Judeo-Christian European values.
Confronting that argument head-on, Chirac contends that bringing the
nation of 70 million people into the EU is the best way to tamp down
Islamic extremism and eliminate what some Europeans see as a threat.
“After centuries of wars and horrors, we want to leave our children a
peaceful, stable region without war,” Chirac said, describing
Turkey’s accession as part of an EU effort “for peace and stability.”
France also wants the issue of the killing of Armenians in 1915-23 to
be on the table during membership negotiations, although Foreign
Minister Michel Barnier has said France will not demand official
recognition of the killings as a condition for entry.
The Turks have been accused of committing genocide in the killing of
as many as 1.5 million Armenians during a campaign to force them from
eastern Turkey. Ankara vehemently denies it and insists the figure is
greatly inflated.
On Wednesday, the European Parliament called on EU leaders to open
membership talks with Turkey “without undue delay.” However, it urged
Ankara to carry out more democratic reforms, move toward recognizing
Cyprus and acknowledge the Armenian killings.