France Searches New Ways to Keep Turkey Outside?

Journal of Turkish Weekly
Aug 2 2005

PARIS – France appeared to raise a new bar on Tuesday for Turkey to
start European Union (EU) membership talks in October by saying Ankara
must recognize (Greek) Cyprus first. There are two governments on the
island, Turkish and Greek States. However the EU does not recognize
the 25 years-old Turkish TRNC State while Turkey does not accept the
Greek Government as the only representative of the island.

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin’s “It doesn’t seem
conceivable to me that a negotiation process of whatever kind can
start with a country that does not recognize every member state of the
European Union, in other words all 25 of them,” Villepin told Europe 1
radio. However it is argued that the EU members knew during the Summit
of 17 December that Turkey would not recognize the (Greek) Cyprus until
the problem is solved. Dr. Sedat Laciner from USAK (ISRO) for example
says “Cyprus has never been a condition for the EU talks. France looks
for an excuse to keep Turkey out”. According to Laciner the EU should
be impartial and should not abuse the problems in Cyprus.

The executive European Commission and EU president Britain confirming
Turkish perspective said the 25 EU leaders had never made recognition
a prerequisite for beginning negotiations, and the Cyprus question
should be dealt with separately in a U.N. framework. The Greek side
had strongly rejected the UN Peace Plan in 2004 though the Turkish
Cypriots accepted the Plan.

According to the Turkish media and experts France is not sincere on
the Cyprus problem. Nilgun Gulcan for instance argues that “France
searches new ways to keep Turkey outside of the EU”. “France first
abused the Armenian problem and now the Cyprus problem. They seek a
Turkish and Muslim-free EU. It is unfortunate that some politicians
playing a dangerous game. They try to establish the EU on religious
and civilasational differences. And I see no difference between El
Kaide’s suicide bombings and anti-Turkish groups’ attempts to block
Turkey’s EU membership. Both are undermining the coexistence of the
Europeans” added Gulcan. Turkey signed the EU protocol last Friday
but it issued a declaration stipulating that the act did not mean
recognition of the Greek Cypriot government.

A British presidency official said EU leaders had never made
recognition of Cyprus a condition for opening talks, noting that
French President Jacques Chirac had said last December that signing
the protocol did not mean Turkey would recognize (Greek) Cyprus.
Villepin was foreign minister at that time.

But public opinion in France is strongly opposed to Turkish accession
and leading conservative presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy,
the interior minister and leader of the ruling UMP party, has said
Turkey should not be offered full membership. The main reason for
the anti-Turkish stance is the anti-Turkish groups in France. The
religious and nationalist groups argue that Turks are not European
because they are not Christian. The Greeks and Armenians in France also
try to prevent Turkey’s membership and organize anti-Turkish campaigns.

The Cyprus Republic was established as a Turkish-Greek joint state.
However the armed Greek ultra-nationalist attacked the Turkish
community in order to annex the island to Greece. Many Turkish Cypriots
were massacred by the EOKA terrorists. When the Greek nationalist
made a military coup the island was divided and the Turkish Cypriots
established their own state TRNC.