TURKEY’S GUL LOBBIES HOSTILE FRANCE ON EU BID
by Jean-Louis de la Vaissiere
Agence France Presse
October 7, 2009 Wednesday 4:53 PM GMT
President Abdullah Gul flew into France on Wednesday to bring Turkey’s
campaign for membership of the European Union to the country that is
leading the drive to exclude it.
Gul was greeted at the airport by France’s Minister for European
Affairs Pierre Lellouche, according to French officials, and began
a three-day programme of meetings and speeches.
Before setting off, he insisted his mainly-Muslim state was making
good progress on reforms required by the 27-nation bloc.
He is nevertheless expected to meet firm opposition from his French
counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy.
"Our priority is to put into practice what we learned from the
European Union. We are focused on this aim since we came to power,"
Gul told AFP, defending the record of his Islamist-rooted government.
Gul was to meet foreign policy experts later Wednesday and Prime
Minister Francois Fillon on Thursday, taking time to persuade French
opinion of his case before meeting Sarkozy, who is staunchly opposed
to Turkey’s bid, on Friday.
Turkey began membership negotiations in 2005, but has so far opened
talks in only 11 of the 35 policy areas that candidates must complete,
while France, Germany and other EU members have sought to slow or
halt the process.
Sarkozy says Turkey — of which only a small portion west of the
Bosphorus is geographically in Europe and whose large population
would be the first in the bloc to be mainly Muslim — should settle
for a partnership agreement.
In June, hopes that France might soften its stance were raised when
Sarkozy appointed a new minister for Europe, Pierre Lellouche, known
to favour Turkish membership. The minister, however, now publicly
backs his president.
"We want Turkey to be a bridge between East and West," Sarkozy declared
in June during an appearance with President Barack Obama at which he
disagreed with the US leader’s support for Turkish EU membership.
"I told President Obama that it’s very important for Europe to have
borders. For me, Europe is a force stability in the world and I cannot
allow that force for stabilisation to be destroyed," Sarkozy declared.
This position, which is popular with a French electorate nervous of
allowing 76 million new citizens to compete on the European job market,
is unlikely to change this week.
And, despite window dressing such as a Turkish cultural season to be
held in France from this week, relations between the two countries
are tense.
"In the past five years you can see a real degradation in ties. Bridges
have been burned. Polite talk won’t change anything," said Didier
Billion, of the Institute of International and Strategic Relations
in Paris.
Billion said France had a "schizophrenic attitude" with Turkey,
on the one hand reaching out with gestures like a cultural season,
on the other thwarting its diplomatic initiatives.
Lellouche has suggested that Turkey could arrange privileged trading
ties with Europe — "like we have with Brazil" — but Gul has argues
his country could have special value as Europe’s Muslim partner.
"When the EU began to have links with Turkey, this country was already
a Muslim country, there is nothing new in this. Besides, the EU never
defined itself as a religious union," Gul said.
"Its common values are democracy, human rights and the supremacy of
the rule of law. It is on this basis that we have built our relations
with Europe.
"Not only does Turkey adopt the criteria of Europe, but it also plays
a role in spreading these values in the region," he said, suggesting
Turkish membership could improve ties with the Middle East.
France appreciates Turkey’s engagement in the diplomatic problems
posed by Iran, Syria and the Middle East conflict, and hails Ankara’s
renewal of ties with Armenia and efforts to improve the fate of its
own Kurdish minority.
But Paris has been disappointed by Turkey’s failure to resolve its
longstanding sovereignty dispute with Cyprus or halt the stream of
illegal immigrants flowing through its territory towards the Union.
France was also shocked when Turkey opposed Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s
appointment as NATO secretary general because of his Danish
government’s support for free expression in the row over cartoons of
the Prophet Mohammed.
French economic ties with Turkey have been hit by the tension,
according to Billion, with several companies including Gaz de France
finding themselves excluded from major deals such as the Nabucco gas
pipeline project.