The New Star of the European Union: Does It Shine in France?

Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Dec 24 2004

The anxiety, fear, curiosity.. These are still dominant feelings in
France after the big day, 17th December, in Brussels. The negative
voices are still very loud. The question marks did not find their
results. What will happen? Will Turkey be successful in its “Europe
journey”? What will be the stance of French government and Chirac?
It can be said that the Turkey issue separated not only the public
but also the politicians. Turkey is now a political apparatus in
France that controls and manipulates the domestic and foreign affairs.

The President Chirac continues to defend his pro-Turkey stance. As
he has hesitations because of the presidential election while the
majority of the public are against the membership of Turkey to the
European Union, he stated that Turkey will be successful in its journey
that will start on 3rd October 2005. He also added that this will be a
long and difficult way, as Le Monde reported. However, he highlighted
that he wishes a happy “marriage” between Turkey and European Union.

The other side of the coin, namely against Turkey side, is still
anxious. As Le Figaro reported, the politicians of UMP, the party of
Nicolas Sarkozy, declared their negative opinions on the expense of
challenging the President. They declared that a parliamentary debate
should take place as soon as possible. Another important actor of
the Assembly, the Prime Minister Jean Pierre Raffarin, declared his
opinion about Turkey’s entry to the EU. In his speech made in the
National Assembly, he stated that the position of France has been
shaped by the President. The general opinion in his speech was clear:
he opposed Turkey’s entry. Even he stated that the membership of Turkey
will be beneficial for EU, he has lots of question marks about Turkey
and its development, or in other words, its success during the journey
to the EU.

Besides Raffarin, some figures are much braver (!) while they declare
their opinion about Turkey. The foreign Minister Barnier used the
Armenian card just before the 17th December summit. While the members
of the French government are cautious in using the term “genocide”,
Barnier was the first who used it in the parliament. As they do
not want to lost Armenian citizens’ votes they are very careful on
this issue.

As it is mentioned above Turkey has become one of the significant
state affairs’ tools. In every debate “this political tool” is used
by political and state elites. They can not “imagine” the Union with
Turkey. According to them this potential star of Europe can not be as
shiny as the other 25 stars. They can not get rid of the prejudices.
In my point of view, if Ankara and Brussels can not meet in a common
point, Turkey may find prospective star groups in the endless sky…The
crucial point is the success of this star during its journey and its
positive impacts on the sky that it belongs…

Selin Akyüz, ISRO

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