The New Anatolian, Turkey
March 27 2007

French presidential hopeful Royal favors Turkey’s EU bid ‘in
principle’

Tuesday , 27 March 2007

French presidential hopeful Segolene Royal says in a new book that
she supports Turkey’s bid to join the European Union "in principle"
— but not until the 27-member bloc is revamped.

The comments in the book entitled "Maintenant" (Now), which hits
store shelves on Tuesday, make Royal the only candidate among the top
three contenders to express support for Ankara’s EU bid.

"I support it in principle but not now because Europe is stalled and,
before expanding, we have to restart it," said Royal, her firmest
remarks yet on the subject.

Royal had previously said that her position on Turkey’s bid was "that
of the French people," and acknowledged in the book that she had been
criticized for such vagueness.

Defending that stance, like conservative President Jacques Chirac,
Royal said French voters will have the final say on the Turkish bid
in a national referendum on the issue if the time comes.

Her two main rivals in the presidential race — conservative
candidate Nicolas Sarkozy and centrist Francois Bayrou — both
support a special partnership for Turkey with the EU but not full
admission. Far-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen, trailing fourth in
most polls, wants no special relationship with Turkey. The two-round
election takes place on April 22 and May 6.

Royal said incorporating Turkey in the EU would send a strong signal
for "a world haunted by a clash of civilizations." It would also
reinforce calls for the government to recognize the Armenians
genocide claims.

Turkey strongly opposes the claims that its predecessor state, the
Ottoman government, caused the Armenian deaths in a planned genocide.
The Turkish government has said the toll is wildly inflated and that
Armenians were killed or displaced in civil unrest during the
empire’s collapse and conditions of World War I. Ankara’s proposal to
Yerevan to set up a joint commission of historians to study the
disputed events is still awaiting a positive response from the
Armenian side. After French lawmakers voted last October to make it a
crime to deny that the claims were genocide, Turkey said it would
suspend military relations with France.

In October, Royal said Turkey must recognize the deaths of Armenians
as genocide if it hopes to join the EU.