Cihan News, Turkey
July 18 2004
Turkish P.M. Erdogan Due In France Tomorrow
ANKARA (CIHAN) – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will pay
three-day official visit to France to promote Turkey’s EU membership
drive. The Turkish Prime Minister will head Paris tomorrow.
The Turkish Prime Minister will meet with his French counterpart
Jean-Pierre Raffarin and with Turkish citizens living in France on
the first day of visit,
Erdogan will attend a conference on July 20 where he will deliver a
speech named Turkey -France: New Perspective for Affective
Partnership. The Turkish Prime Minister is to meet the French
President Jaques Chirac on same day and ask for support for Turkey’s
EU membership bid.
The Turkish Prime Minister will carry out talks with French political
party leaders on July 21st. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan is
expected to meet François Hollande and UMP leader Alain Juppé who
also opposes Turkey’s EU membership.
The bilateral relations, Turkey-EU relations and international
developments including the latest developments in Cyprus, Middle
East, Iraq, Northern Africa Project and Afghanistan will be taken up
in the official government meetings.
Turkey is hoping to open entry talks with the European Union (EU) by
the end of 2004, and has adopted a series of EU harmonization
packages, including political and economic criteria, to meet
membership requirements. The Turkish Parliament has adopted seven EU
harmonization packages in the last two years, and has also abolished
capital punishment in order to comply with EU standards.
EU leaders are due to meet in December to decide whether Turkey, a
candidate country since 1999, has made enough progress on human
rights and political freedoms for the initiation of the long-delayed
accession talks.
Meanwhile, Armenian associations in the French cities of Paris and
Marseille will hold demonstrations against the Turkish Prime
Minister.