Sunday’s Zaman , Turkey
Oct 18 2009
France courting Turkey for increased trade relations
`There is a great desire on the French side to reinforce relations
with Turkey including in all economic sectors,’ said a top French
diplomat in Turkey, signaling that Paris is ready to embark on healing
the rift that emerged over opposition to Turkey’s full membership in
the European Union.
Speaking with Sunday’s Zaman on the heels of Turkish President
Abdullah Gül’s official visit to France two weeks ago, during which
Gül and French President Nicolas Sarkozy inaugurated the `Season of
Turkey in France,’ French Ambassador Bernard Emie said the high-level
visit was a golden opportunity to reset strained relations between the
two countries.
He described the visit as `excellent’ and dismissed reports that the
Turkish president was poorly received and treated unfairly.
Concerned that France is on the losing end of a bargain when it comes
to tenders and government contracts in Turkey, not to mention the
rising anti-France sentiment in a 70-million-large consumer market
because of Sarkozy’s stance on Turkey’s EU bid, Paris is eager to
improve relations with its NATO ally. The French ambassador lamented
the fact that so much negativity has been focused on the EU membership
issue while the two countries have been cooperating on a number of
platforms including NATO, the United Nations Security Council and the
G-20.
`Our relations are multidimensional and very much focused on
cooperation albeit behind the doors sometimes,’ he said, conceding
that there have been ups and downs in their relations in the past. The
top French diplomat agrees that they have a real public relations
problem on their hands when it comes to Turkey. `We could do much
better and become proactive in dispelling rumors that have nothing to
do with the facts,’ he underlined.
France is the second-largest investor in Turkey, and many French
companies have been very active in the Turkish market for some time
now. `If you discount the Netherlands, where many companies base their
headquarters because of tax incentives, we are actually the No. 1
foreign investor in Turkey,’ Emie pointed out. The current trade
volume between the two countries stood at about 11 billion euros last
year, favoring neither side.
That did not stop Ankara, however, from imposing an undeclared embargo
on French companies that were shunned from major tenders in Turkey or
vetoed in international contracts for which Turkey was a major
participant. French state-owned nuclear group Areva was barred from
entering its bid into a nuclear reactor tender in Turkey, while Gaz de
France (GDF) was vetoed by Ankara from participating in the
international consortium building the Nabucco pipeline that will
connect Caspian natural gas resources to the European market.
French Ambassador Emie believes that there are strong signals given by
the Turkish side that those strained days are about to be over.
`Turkish President Gül conveyed the message to Sarkozy that French
companies are welcome to attend future nuclear tenders in Turkey,’ he
said, adding that he was convinced Turkey would give a green light for
the GDF to join the Nabucco consortium if the international group
decides to expand membership.
`I think the business environment for French companies in Turkey is
`satisfactory’ at best at this time,’ he said, adding that they will
work harder. He lamented the fact that French small and medium-sized
companies are not very aggressive in the Turkish market as opposed to
other foreign investors.
To repair relations with Turkey and promote Turkey’s image in the
French public opinion, France has launched a Turkish cultural season
lasting nine months and covering 400 events in 80 cities across
France. The iconic Eiffel Tower was lit in the Turkish colors of red
and white every night from Oct. 6 to 11. `This was the first time we
had done it for a foreign country within the context of a cultural
season,’ the French ambassador said, stressing the significance of the
symbolic gesture. `Many people urged the mayor of Paris against
deciding in favor of the light up, but he did not pay attention to
those [people],’ he said. Many French companies are listed as sponsors
for the Season of Turkey in France, and business organization MEDEF
extended red carpet treatment to the visiting Turkish president. Emie
pointed out that there is not enough political dialogue between the
countries, saying the last time the Turkish president visited France
was a decade earlier. The French took longer in paying an official
visit to Ankara.
The French ambassador also said France is closely working with Turkey
in European aircraft manufacturer Airbus’ construction of the future
A350 plane and both countries are involved in the project to build the
European A400M military transport plane.
Hailing Armenia rapprochement
Hailing the rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia as a breakthrough
development, the French diplomat gave assurances that the Armenian
diaspora living in France would not be able to block the normalization
of relations between the two countries. `If it is any measure, just
look at how we acted in the genocide resolution,’ he said, underlining
that French politicians did not cave in to the Armenian diaspora’s
pressure and killed the resolution in the senate. France’s lower house
of parliament infuriated Turks in 2006 by backing a bill that would
make it a crime to deny that mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks during World War I amounted to genocide. The French Senate never
ratified the bill. `I do not think the diaspora can launch a campaign
against the signing of protocols between Turkey and Armenia,’ the
French ambassador said.
He said France is actively working with renewed dynamism within the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Minsk
Group, which has been working for a decade and a half to mediate the
Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Russia and
the United States are other co-chair countries in the Minsk Group.
`The process is going in the right direction, and you have all sides
focused very much on resolving the issue with new dynamism,’ he said,
expressing his hope that both the Turkish and Armenian parliaments
would ratify protocols.
Touching on the activities of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party
(PKK) in France, Ambassador Emie said French authorities are
cooperating closely with Turkish officials to stem PKK operations.
`France is determined to fight terrorism,’ he said. `Thirty-five
people were condemned to jail for illegally raising funds for the
PKK.’ Emie stressed that there is a lot going on behind the scenes in
the PKK issue, allowing both sides to exchange information and share
intelligence.
Worst timing for France
When the issue of embattled businessman Cem Uzan’s request for
political asylum in France came up during the interview, the French
ambassador said it could not have come at a worst time, as France was
trying to heal the rift with Turkey and attempting to tone down the
anti-France sentiment held by the Turkish public. `I did not even know
him before the press reported about the case,’ he noted, adding that
the case has nothing to do with the French Embassy.
Uzan, a businessman who was in the past active in various branches of
business from banking to media and was later chairman of the Young
Party (GP), left the country in early October, fearing jail time over
a fraud conviction. On Thursday, a Turkish court granted the Savings
Deposit Insurance Fund’s (TMSF) petition for an arrest warrant for
Uzan on the grounds that he is a suspect at large.
Ambassador Emie said Uzan has only been given a three-month residence
permit while France reviews Uzan’s asylum request. He said the agency
reviewing the asylum request is an independent body and that they will
make the decision after reviewing the facts of the case. He further
remarked that the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and
Stateless Persons (OFPRA) may extend Uzan’s temporary residence if it
does not reach a decision in a three-month period.
Uzan and a number of his relatives have been charged with fraud by
Turkish courts over the $6 billion collapse of a family bank. Motorola
and Nokia are seeking $3.4 billion in unpaid debts for equipment,
phones and services provided to Telsim, a Turkish mobile phone company
the Uzan family once owned.
18 October 2009, Sunday
ABDULLAH BOZKURT ANKARA