Hürriyet, Turkey
Nov 15 2008

Euro experts mull over polishing Turkey’s image

ANKARA – European officials have urged Turkey to step up its efforts
to promote its image in the European Union during a conference on
"Influence Strategies of Turkey in EU member states," an endeavor they
say is an integral part of the accession process.

"The global strategy should be to move away from emotional issues and
try to communicate rational issues," Jacques Lafitte, founder of
Avisa Partners, an EU Public Affairs Consultancy firm, told the
Hürriyet Daily News, on the sidelines of the conference held
at BaÅ?kent University.

"Try to tell Europeans that Turkey is a successful country on the
economic side, which it is. People do not know about it," he said, and
advised restraint from wasting energy arguing against marginal
opinions within Europe.

Thomas Grunert, head of the Interparliamentary Delegations Unit at the
European Parliament, said European parliamentarians are not satisfied
with changes to Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, an image
spoiler for Turkey, speaking to the Daily News. "The European
parliament would like to go beyond and see the article dropped or
further modified to guarantee even more freedom of expression,"
Grunert said.

He said there was a sort of disappointment in Europe over the pace of
Turkey’s accession process. "2008 was the year of European
integration: It is almost over, and many people were expecting more
progress, although we understand there were some negative internal
developments," Grunert said.

Turkey ignores the undecided
Vural Ã-ger, a German member of the European Parliament, asserted
that Turkey must differentiate its communication strategies toward
different target groups. "You have to speak differently to a senior
conservative German male member of Parliament, than to a young female
MP from Bulgaria," Ã-ger said as he differentiated between
countries who are favorable, reluctant, or indifferent to Turkey’s
accession to the EU.

"Turkey must concentrate on the latter," Ã-ger said, adding that
excessive campaigning in countries like France or Austria, where
public opinion is heavily against Turkey’s accession, would be a waste
of energy.

"Undecided countries are ignored by Turkey. When Turkey is on the
agenda of the European Parliament, it is members from Austria, France,
Germany or Netherlands, reluctant member states, who take the stage
first. We hardly hear Poles or Romanians speak about Turkey," Ã-ger
said.

Sensitive topics of Turkish foreign policy should be handled with a
cool head, Lafitte said. "I know that Cyprus is a very difficult
domestic topic in Turkey, but on that, the best thing to do is to stay
calm.

"It is pretty much the same with the French law on Armenian claims,"
said Lafitte, referring to the law adopted by the French national
assembly, but not discussed in the French Senate, that criminalizes
denying the Armenian claims of genocide. "I think it is the historians
duty to write history. But there was a complete overreaction in
Turkey, which antagonized public opinion in France," Lafitte said.