CHIRAC’S ‘FRIENDSHIP WITH TURKEY’: ALL TALK AND NO ACTION
AlÝ Ýhsan Aydin Paris

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 14 2007

With French President Jacques Chirac’s recent announcement that he
would not be standing for a third term as president it appears that
the friendship with Turkey of which he spoke so frequently will remain
as words rather than deeds.

French President Jacques Chirac with Turkish Prime Minister R. Tayyip
Erdoðan.

Chirac, who was described as a "supporter of Turkey" in the
international arena and in his own country, has faced many difficult
periods during his 12-year tenure as France’s president.

He entered the French political scene in 1965, with one of his most
memorable features being his ability to swing through 180 degrees on
a variety of subjects, including those he had defended with great
energy. It was due to this flexibility that he quickly earned the
nickname "girouette," which means "pinwheel."

Chirac’s career has even seen a brief foray into communism, though
he started as a conservative before switching to liberalism in
the late 1970s. Despite being responsible for France’s nuclear
testing in the Pacific Ocean, Chirac later went on to become a
staunch environmentalist. Though he is known today as being among
the "most European" of European leaders, he was in fact opposed to
the European Union during much of the 1990s. As mayor of Paris for
eight years, prime minister for two terms and president of France
since 1995, Chirac’s stance towards Turkey has not been immune to
his pinwheel-like behavior.

EU membership: At the 1997 EU summit in Luxembourg, Chirac openly
expressed his sadness at Turkey not being granted candidate status.

Two years later, when it was announced at the Helsinki summit that
Turkey had been granted this status, Chirac allowed Javier Solana
to take his private plane to bring the news in person to Ankara. In
speeches over the following years, Chirac expressed frequent support
for Turkish membership of the EU. Chirac continued to publicly defend
Turkey’s "European" status, even in 2004 when the ruling Union for
Popular Movement (UMP) and the public opposition was against Turkish
EU membership.

Despite Chirac’s "positive" actions on the above-mentioned fronts,
the leader approved the taking of a referendum on Turkish membership
and registered this condition in the French Constitution. This stance
by Chirac opened the path to similar demands from other EU countries.

Chirac was also among the names at the 2002 Copenhagen summit pushing
to block a date being given to Turkey for the start of accession talks.

Armenian genocide claims: All the developments that took place in
France in relation to the so-called Armenian genocide law took place
under Chirac’s term; the draft came up for discussion in the French
Parliament in 1998 and was officially turned into a bill in 2001.

Despite warnings from various French legal experts that the law was
in direct opposition to the French Constitution, and despite the fact
that the president himself had admitted he was against it, Chirac
decided to bypass the Constitutional Council and approved it himself.

The Armenian bill opened the path to a deep crisis between Turkey
and France that still affects relations. Chirac took a stance of
"opposition" to the bill, accepted last year in the French Parliament,
which calls for penalties for those who publicly deny the claims of
an Armenian genocide. He noted that history could not be determined
via laws. But then on his official visit to the Armenian capital
Yerevan, Chirac did not only utter the word "genocide" but also
stated publicly that in order for Turkey to become an EU member,
it would have to accept the Armenian claims.

Demirel’s visit to Paris never reciprocated: Despite the fact that
Turkey has remained on the French public agenda since he first became
president, Chirac has never made an official visit to Turkey. In 1998,
then Turkish President Suleyman Demirel visited Paris as the guest
of Chirac, the first trip of its level from Ankara since 1967.

After Demirel visited Paris, Turkey awaited a reciprocal visit from
France, but it never occurred and was instead constantly postponed
for political reasons. Chirac, who was "unable to go to Turkey,"
chose instead to visit Armenia last year.

As the first French President to visit Yerevan, Chirac declared
2007 the "the Year of Armenia" in France. In the face of the many
diplomatic problems experienced with Turkey, Chirac still managed to
oversee the sales of Airbus airplanes from France to Turkey. However,
another French ambition, to participate in the bidding for contracts
in Turkey’s nuclear power plant plans, was waylaid by the Armenian
genocide bill.

Popularity at its lowest: Chirac’s announcement that he would not
be running again for the presidency was greeted with pleasure by
other presidential candidates. There is now great curiosity as to
who exactly Chirac will support in the race to become the next French
president and, in particular, what his stance is with regard to the
conservative candidate, Nikolas Sarkozy. Chirac has said that he will
reveal whom he supports after March 19.

Extreme-right-wing leader Jean Marie Le Pen reacted to Chirac’s
departure with the comment, "I am losing my greatest enemy." More
than 22 million people watched Chirac’s departure speech, and it is
notable that the president’s latest popularity standings had touched
bottom, according to recent polls, and that he was characterized in
both the French press and by the public as "unsuccessful." Chirac
has been repeatedly criticized for his part in the failure of the
European Constitution after he brought it to a referendum in France.

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