TURKISH PM PLANS TO ATTEND MEDITERRANEAN SUMMIT: AIDE
Agence France Presse — English
July 8, 2008 Tuesday 11:36 AM GMT
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is planning to attend a
summit this weekend aimed at launching a Mediterranean union despite
Turkish reservations about the French initiative, an aide said Tuesday.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy telephoned Erdogan and personally
invited him to Sunday’s gathering in Paris.
"The prime minister said he will attend unless something extraordinary
happens," Erdogan’s spokesman Akif Beki told AFP, without giving
details.
Ankara has been hesitating about whether to embrace the Union for
the Mediterranean, an initiative spearheaded by Sarkozy, because of
doubts that it may be an attempt to delude the country’s European
Union membership prospects.
Sarkozy is a staunch opponent of Turkey’s EU accession and advocates a
"special partnership" rather than full membership — a proposal Ankara
categorically rejects.
Turkish diplomats took part in a meeting last week to draft a final
resolution to be adopted at Sunday’s summit and secured "significant"
changes in the text, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said earlier
Tuesday, without elaborating.
"There are several more issues on which talks will continue," he said,
adding that diplomats would meet again to put the final touches on
the draft on the eve of the summit.
Sarkozy has invited leaders from about 40 countries, including Arab
nations and Israel, for the launch of the initiative, aimed at boosting
cooperation between EU and Mediterranean rim states.
"We are not jumping on this initiative, but at the same time we
are making preparations and keeping in touch" with the organisers,
a Turkish government official said, adding that other countries also
had reservations about the project.
Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi is the only leader so far to have snubbed
the invitation. He strongly criticised the idea of a Mediterranean
union last month, saying it threatened Arab and African unity efforts.
France’s vocal opposition to Turkey’s EU accession and attempts to
slow down its accession talks, coupled with pressure on Ankara to
recognise the killings of Armenians during World War I as genocide,
have cast a pall on bilaterel ties in recent years.
Turkey has accused French leaders of exploiting Turkey’s EU bid in
domestic politics despite the fact that Paris gave its consent to
the opening of membership talks with Ankara in 2005.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
