Journal of Turkish Weekly
March 2 2005
French to hold referendum on Turkey’s EU membership
French Parliament voted “yes” yesterday to hold a referendum on
Turkey’s bid for EU membership.
Despite fighting strong opposition from his centre-right party UMP,
French Prime Minister Jack Chirac is in favor of Turkish EU
membership.
The party is currently split down the middle on the subject, but are
expected to reach an agreement in December 2005.
Before the referendum on Turkey can take place, France will hold a
referendum on the EU constitution. This referendum was originally
going to be held late in 2005, but as France wants to keep the issue
of “Turkey’s EU bid” completely separate, the date may be brought
forward to May 8. , symbolising the end of world war II.
Once all member states have signed the treaty on October 29. , the
ratification process can begin.
There is a strong anti-Turkish lobby in France including the Greek
and Armenian lobby groups. Apart from teh ethnic lobbies, the
rightist groups claim that Turkey is a Muslim country and there is no
room in EU for the non-Christian states. The EU has no Muslim member
now, though there are Muslim states in the continent like Turkey,
Albania, Bosnia, Turkish Cyprus and Azerbaijan.
Compiled from Hurriyet, Milliyet, Zaman.